EOSC Secretariat Supports Projects Fighting COVID-19 with €1.2 Million

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EOSC Secretariat Supports Projects Fighting COVID-19 with €1.2 Million

EOSC Secretariat Supports Projects Fighting COVID-19 with €1.2 Million


01 Jun 2020

The EOSC Secretariat has announced the successful innovative scientific projects tackling COVID19 that it has supported through EOSC funding.

EOSC Secretariat has so far supported 32 applications with a total of €1,235,000. Funded projects include an alternative contact-tracing app developed in Ireland, which makes no use of Bluetooth or GPS location data, and an innovative medical device that detects and measures lung infection, coming from France.

Successful applicants have been notified and are in the process of receiving their allotted funds. The COVID-19 co-creation fund is still open for applicants but due to close on the 12th of June at 17:00 CEST.

The EOSC Secretariat responded to the urgent international challenge caused by coronavirus by introducing a fast-track procedure to apply for co-creation funding, specifically dedicated to activities related to COVID-19. Applications were evaluated according to Horizon 2020 criteria, by a specially established evaluation team working in coordination with the EOSC Secretariat Steering Group.

The European Open Science Cloud is an ideal tool to respond to public emergencies such as the COVID-19 virus. This is due to the very nature of open science, which allows research to be shared in real-time, meaning the scientific reaction time to a global virus outbreak is much faster than before. In the case of the SARS outbreak, it took 20 months to begin testing a vaccine, but for COVID-19 the scientific community expects to be able to reach that step much quicker.

Please find the full call details and application form here.