New financial support for EU SMEs, as huge UK charity cuts back on research
Research Professional News is tracking funding agency responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read our articles on the changes being made by European research agencies and UK biomed and non-biomed funders.
Europe
New sources of financial support have been announced for smaller companies and cultural initiatives based in Europe, to help them deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
An influential MEP in the European Parliament’s research committee has told researchers to seek out EU cybersecurity funding in response to Covid-19, saying the pandemic has left companies and universities less protected against hackers.
Germany’s summer semester, which starts on 14 April, will take place—but with some exceptions for students and researchers to take account of the coronavirus pandemic, the government has announced.
UK
Cancer Research UK has announced a “devastating” £44 million cut to its research portfolio as the charity grapples with the financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
The UK’s five most senior doctors have written to every NHS Trust in the country urging them to make “every effort” to recruit Covid-19 patients for vital scientific research and the world’s largest randomised clinical trial of potential coronavirus treatments is underway in the UK. The news came as biomedical associations joined forces on designing and rolling out diagnostics for Covid-19, following weeks of delay and confusion over the UK’s strategy on testing.
In the HE sector, around a third of applicants feel less confident that they will get into their chosen university because of the coronavirus, despite a government ban on unconditional offers to stop a “dangerous scramble” for students. And nursing students who join the NHS frontline during the coronavirus pandemic have been promised they will not “suffer financially” as a result, but students are still in the dark on whether they will pay tuition fees.