Extra millions will fund R&D on vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests
The European Commission has boosted a €10-million January funding call for research on the global coronavirus outbreak with an additional €37.5m, after receiving “91 proposals within the very short two-week deadline”.
“Thanks to the excellent quality of proposals received, the commission mobilised additional funds in order to support a higher number of projects,” it announced on 6 March.
The extra money means the call will fund 17 projects involving 136 research teams, who will work on developing vaccines, treatments, diagnostic tests and medical systems to prevent the spread of the virus.
The virus causes the respiratory disease Covid-19 and has infected more than 95,000 people worldwide, killing more than 3,200.
“The emergency funding from Horizon 2020 enables researchers to work immediately to tackle the outbreak of the coronavirus on several fronts,” said R&D commissioner Mariya Gabriel.
“Seeing the research community getting in action so rapidly gives us new hope that we will soon be one step closer to our goal of stopping the spread of the virus.”
A separate €45m call from the EU-backed Innovation Medicines Initiative remains open for applications.