The EU-CardioRNA (“Catalyzing transcriptomics research in cardiovascular disease”) COST Action has been awarded the COVIRNA project to improve surveillance and care of COVID-19 patients. The Action which is halfway through its four years, submitted a proposal with a consortium of 15 partners from healthcare, academia and industry from 12 European countries.
With a total budget of EUR 4.44 million and EUR 3.88 million of EU contribution, COVIRNA is a patient-centred Innovation project aiming to generate a diagnostic tool to identify COVID-19 patients at risk of developing fatal cardiovascular complications, ultimately leading to their improved surveillance and care.
The Coordinator of COVIRNA and chair of the Action, Yvan Devaux (left), says that “Being Chair of EU-CardioRNA is both a challenge and a highly stimulating and rewarding duty, especially in these pandemic times. The EU-CardioRNA network, gathering more than 180 partners from 36 countries, managed to reply to a call for interest from the Directorate for Research and Innovation of the European Commission dedicated to developing new solutions to fight the pandemic. Within only one month, 15 EU-CardioRNA COST Action partners built and submitted the COVIRNA project.”
The COVIRNA project is part of the European Commission Second call for an Expression of Interest for innovative and rapid health-related approaches to respond to COVID-19 and to deliver quick results for society for a higher level of preparedness of health systems (SC1-PHECORONAVIRUS-2020-2) as part of the ERAvsCORONA Action Plan.
The project started in November 2020 and will run for 24 months.
Further information
This article was first published on 27 November by COST.
Receive our news bulletin each Tuesday & Thursday and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
