$8 billion for R&D, app privacy concerns, trust in science, and more
UK
Privacy is “at the heart” of a new Covid-19 contact-tracing app, its NHS makers have insisted, after researchers voiced concerns over the security of the technology.
Zoos and aquariums affected by the coronavirus pandemic have been offered access to a £14 million support fund by the government, while plans to scrap VAT on electronic publications, including academic journals, have been fast-tracked and are now in place.
The government’s chief scientific adviser has challenged ministers’ repeated claims that they are being “led by science” in responding to the Covid-19 crisis.
The idea that government advisers can separate science and politics is bogus, writes Melanie Smallman, a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute. She is commenting after the launch of an “independent Sage” group to shadow the government’s official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
And Chris Skidmore, a Conservative MP and former minister for universities and science, writes that £100m in R&D funding may not be what Universities UK or the wider sector were hoping for in terms of help to tackle the impact of the pandemic on research—but it remains a promising start.
Europe
A global fundraising drive for Covid-19 R&D—hosted by the European Commission on 4 May with the aim of funding the development of vaccines, diagnostic tests and therapeutics and making them accessible and affordable worldwide—has met its $8 billion (€7.4bn) target.
Stephen Quest, the new director-general of the Joint Research Centre, has said that transparency and trustworthiness will be his “guiding principles” during his time at the helm of the European Commission evidence-for-policy unit.
Trust in science has reached record levels during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey of 1,000 people in Germany.