COVID-19 | Who has a solution to the pandemic?

The current global pandemic has affected us all and now more than ever we are looking at healthcare professionals and researchers for their unwavering support and guidance. In this respect, the European Commission, its Member States and other global funding institutions have made available funds to support research and expedite any interventions that will help curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

We have listed them for you and urge you to reach out should you need support in applying for funding or if you have further questions regarding these initiatives.

We will update this article on a rolling basis as more information and funding instruments become available. Navigate to topic:

• EIT Health
• Eureka – Solutions for the next human high-impact pandemic
• EOSC Fast track Process for Covid-19 Co-creation Request
• CEPI – Multi-purpose platform technologies for rapid response against emerging infectious diseases
• European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)
• EXSCALATE4CoV (E4C)
• European AI Alliance (EAA)
• European Invesment Bank (EIB) InnovFin Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF)
• COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator
• Potential funding from May 2020 onwards
• Other Horizon 2020 calls: an overview
• Closed calls

Personal advice?
Or call us directly: 088 495 20 00

Open applications and initiatives [update 18 June]

• EIT Health

EIT Health Innovation, Education and Accelerator calls. The specific objectives of the proposal depends on the call type. Proposals should focus on prevention, management and response to pandemics, including:

• Hinder disease spread and prevention of outbreaks
• Optimise screening and diagnosis
• Treat people better
• Healthcare organisation’s resource management, logistics and supply chains
• Data-driven initiatives

Proposals must be submitted by an EIT Health Core or Associate Partner, or a Linked Third Party. External partners could also join upon registration.

The grant amount is € 35,000 for Associate Partners.

Deadline Expressions of interest: 27 May 2020. Deadline proposal: 8 July 2020

• Eureka – Solutions for the next human high-impact pandemic

Participants are invited to submit research and innovation project proposals aiming to provide solutions and preparedness for highly contagious human infectious disease pandemics which inflict a high impact on society. This could be for example:

• Technologies enabling local resilience or self sufficiency
• Medical intervention robotics
• Infection prevention and protection
• Prevention of antibiotic resistance
• Sanitation technology
• Diagnostics and testing
• Therapeutics, vaccines and medicines
• Medical intervention robotics
• Disease-tracking technology
• Smart technologies for critical production and supply chains under lockdown
• Education technologies and digital workplace
• Govtech/Open data and Big Data

In order to apply, the participants must meet the following qualifications:

• The consortium should include at least two organisations independent of each other from two of the participating countries (see below).
• Funding assistance follows each National Funding Association’s funding regulations.
• The project participants must express their willingness to cooperate, on a win-win/fair basis in the development of a new product, industrial process or service.
• The product, process or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.
• The project must have a civilian purpose .
• The project should benefit all involved partners in a well-balanced consortium.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technologic cooperation between the participants (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure, etc.).
• A signed consortium agreement (CA) for the purpose of a multi-partner collaborative R&D project is mandatory.
• The duration of the project may not exceed 36 months.
• Product, service or process implementation or market launch should happen no later than 24 months after project completion.
• Participants from other Eureka countries or countries outside of Eureka can also participate, but they must secure their own funding before the deadlinefor the call.
• Participating countries are: Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.

Deadline for applications: 15 July 2020

Deadlines for national funding applications: Varies per country

Funding Decisions: 15 November 2020

• EOSC Fast track Process for Covid-19 Co-creation Request

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) fosters open science and the digital transformation of science by providing a trusted and open virtual environment for the scientific community with seamless access to services addressing the whole research data life cycle. In this regard, EOSC is making available funding opportunities that will be fast-tracked.

Activities and actions that deploy open science methods and resources and make use of the EOSC communities in order to address COVID-19 related issues. Indicatively, these could be:

• Opening up virus related research and data
• Sharing of infrastructures and services
• Developing open design equipment for fighting COVID-19
• Sharing sampling test methodologies and data
• Developing open methodologies, services, software and infrastructures for sharing data, practices and knowledge in relation to the development and treatment of COVID-19
• Developing open science methodologies for monitoring the spread of COVID-19
• Developing open-science / evidence-based methodologies for the development of epidemic combating policies  – Accessing and combining open data not only to eradicate the virus but learn how to deal with similar viruses and future outbreaks
• Assessing the validity of epidemic information in relation to the virus by ensuring that its sources can be traced and verified
• Other open science activities/ actions related to the fighting of epidemics and pandemics

Call criteria:

Eligible to apply are individuals or natural persons and legal entities residing in the Member States of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions and the associated countries (AC).

Applicants should not be receiving support from other instruments (EU or national Research Infrastructure projects) for the proposed activities, and are not being funded from other sources for an identical activity.

• CEPI – Multi-purpose platform technologies for rapid response against emerging infectious diseases

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) has paused this call on account of the large number of expressions of interest received. However, those with cutting-edge technologies are invited to apply for the pre-submission stage CEPE TechTalks.

Pre-Submission – CEPI TechTalks

Applicants may get a broader understanding of the call and see if their idea meets the suitability and eligibility requirements, by arranging a CEPI TechTalk with the CEPI Secretariat.

The CEPI TechTalks are video conference of up to 60 minutes in length. During the first half of the meeting, applicants are invited to present their technology. Feedback is provided in the second half of the meeting.

If you would like to organise a CEPI TechTalk, please email cfp@cepi.net, with the subject line ‘CEPI Tech Talk: *Name* and *Organisation*’.

In advance of the meeting you will be asked to provide the following:

• A brief description of the technology
• Information about the pathogens you have tested your platform on
• Current developmental stage
• Ideas of the pathogens you would suggest within your proposal
• Your tentative timeline for developing the technology through Phase I
• A rough estimate of the potential costs related to this development
• Any additional questions ie legal, technical, criteria relating to the call

Call scope: This call for proposals invites applications for the development of innovative platform technologies that can be used to develop vaccines and other immunoprophylactics to rapidly respond to future outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases and unknown pathogens, known as “Disease X”.

During the proposed project period, CEPI encourages vaccine developers to work towards the following aspirational targets for their platforms:

• 16 weeks from antigen identification to product release for clinical trials.
• 6 weeks from administration of first dose to achieving an immune response likely to result in a clinical benefit.
• 8 weeks to manufacture 100,000—from a “go” decision to production, fill, finish, and release.

Call criteria:

This call is open worldwide to all types of non-profit research organisations, for-profit companies, international organisations and foundations, joint R&D ventures, government research organisations, and academic institutions. Applicants must be legal entities, or consortia comprised of legal entities. At least one of the partners in the applicant organisations or consortia of partnering organisations should have experience in human vaccine development and have a track record of bringing vaccine candidates through to human clinical trials in the past 10 years.

Applicant must have at least preclinical immunogenicity data from one pathogen to support the platform. Applicants (individual organisations or consortia) will be asked to include the following information in their EOI –

• plans to generate preclinical safety, immunogenicity and efficacy data for three pathogens that could enable clinical testing
• plans to perform a Phase I clinical trial for at least one selected antigen
• plans to produce at least one Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) batch for clinical testing and an engineering batch for a second candidate
• plans to integrate gold-standard assays and animal models where they exist in the evaluation

Call budget: to be determined.

Call deadline: 14 October 2020 (currently paused as of 15 March 2020)

• European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)

EFPIA is tracking the European pharmaceutical industry response to COVID-19, primarily focusing on how the industry can support the following:

1. Ensuring the supply of medicines to the patients that need them
2. Supporting governments and health systems on the ground
3. The search for vaccines, diagnostics and treatments to help in the fight against the coronavirus

EFPIA is actively informing the field and the public of the different initiatives being undertaken by its members. One such initiative is by Novartis who have set up the Novartis COVID-19 Response Fund that will provide $ 20 million in grants to support public health initiatives aiming to support communities manage challenges posed by the pandemic. The individual grant funding amounts can be up to $ 1 million.

The fund will seek to provide financial grants for initiatives focused on but not limited to the following areas:

• Strengthening local and national healthcare infrastructure including funding of additional medical personnel, sourcing of medicines and medical equipment
• Establishing digital platforms for COVID-19 related data collection, remote delivery of healthcare and effective dissemination of important public health information
• Creating new or enhancing new community health programs specific to the pandemic response

Applicants can apply via the Novartis affiliates in their respective countries.

• EXSCALATE4CoV (E4C)

E4C was launched with funding from the European Commission to offer access to screening facilities for selected compounds against the novel coronavirus. E4C uses supercomputers to search for therapies (small molecule drugs). E4C invites organisations to submit proposals for screening of their compounds for efficacy profiling on the E4C Biology platforms. The aim of the platform is to expedite drug design for COVID-19.

Organisations can provide their input – compound structures – via the E4C DRUGBOX for virtual screening against priority target protein structures.

• European AI Alliance (EAA)

Companies or individuals are being asked by EAA to participate in a new initiative to collect ideas about deployable Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics solutions to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.

The goal is to generate an easily accessible repository of information and tools and become part of the common European response to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Solutions, initiatives and ideas can be submitted via this page and will be reviewed by the European Commission Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNEC) before being made available in the following repositories: The Solutions Repository and The Initiatives Repository.

• European Invesment Bank (EIB) InnovFin Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF)

Instrument aim: IDFF offers financial products ranging from standard debt to equity-type financing from EUR 7.5 million to EUR 75 million, to those actively developing innovative interventions including vaccines, drugs, medical and diagnostic devices or novel research infrastructures for combatting infectious diseases. Instrument notes:

• IDFF is open to SMEs, large pharmaceutical company, research institutions, universities, non-profit entities or special-purpose vehicles (SPV). Promoters, sponsors and/or operators must be willing to substantially co-fund the project.
• Beneficiaries must be based in a European Member State or Associated Country. The work pertaining to the intervention (e.g. clinical trial sites) may be conducted globally.
• Interventions need to have a significant public health impact and high degree of marketability
• The product should have passed successfully through the pre-clinical stage or through the proof-of-concept stage (in the case of medical and diagnostic devices)
• Funding can be invested in research infrastructure that provides facilities, resources and related services for research capacity building
• Project costs may include clinical trial costs, set-up of commercialisation such as market access, development of prototypes or industrial roll-out of novel equipment, pre-clinical R&D costs and working capital requirement.

Instrument budget: min. € 7.5 million – max. € 75 million

• COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator

The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, set up by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard Impact Fund, will coordinate the R&D response to COVID-19. The aim will be to expedite the development and evaluation of new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. The Accelerator will have an end-to-end focus, from drug pipeline development through manufacturing and scale-up. The focus now is on sharing research, coordinating investments and pooling resources in order to accelerate research.

Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on COVID-19. In this regard the Accelerator will start with the following:

1. testing approved drugs for activity against COVID-19
2. screening libraries of thousands of compounds with confirmed safety data
3. review new investigational compounds and monoclonal antibodies to be developed by industry partners

Collaboration: The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will work with the World Health Organization, government and private sector funders and institutions, as well as the global regulatory and policy-setting institutions.

Budget: $ 199.6 million – BMGF and Wellcome $ 50 million each; the Mastercard Impact Fund $25 million; $ 25 million Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; $ 49.6 million from the UK Government.

• Potential funding from May 2020 onwards

The Wellcome Trust Epidemic Preparedness: COVID-19 funding call is currently no longer accepting expressions of interest; however, this may change in the coming weeks as the initial review of the projects has been completed.

• Other Horizon 2020 calls: an overview

The European Commission Horizon 2020 programme has extended their deadlines for multiple work programmes and calls. Most notably for the calls under work programme Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing where there are calls regarding the slow uptake of vaccines and data sharing in health research.

For an overview of the other calls:

Stay up to date with the latest news 

Hezelburcht is actively tracking all these developments to ensure we have timely first-hand information. We will continue to update this page as more information on potential funding streams becomes available. In case of any questions – please feel free to contact our European Affairs Manager: Hager Bassyouni.

Contact us for more information
Or call us directly: 088 495 20 00

Closed applications and initiatives [update 23 June]

• ERINHA Advance TransNational Access (TNA) Programme call

The European Research Infrastructure on High pathogenic Agents (ERINHA) has taken part in multiple European projects and initiatives to advance COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 research with the goal to accelerate the development of therapeutic and prophylactic solutions against the virus. ERINHA has now launched their own call for proposals dedicated to COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2research.

Selected scientisch and their projects will be offered free of charge transnational acces (TNA) to ERINHA’s containment facilities. There are five sections for which proposals can be submitted:

• Section 1: Diagnosis tools and immonological tests for COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2
• Section 2: Therapeutics against COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2
• Section 3: Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
• Section 4: Process development
• Section 5: Other tools and methods related to COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2

Submission deadline: Proposals are recommended to be submitted prior to Monday 22 June, 2020 for priority access. Proposals received after 22 June will be evaluated, selected and implemented on a rolling basis until TNA budget is consumed.

• Five new Horizon 2020 calls

Five new COVID-19 calls have recently been opened within Horizon 2020. For example, projects to increase knowledge, strengthen networks or develop new medical supplies are eligible. The new calls are:

• SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2A: Repurposing of manufacturing for vital medical supplies and equipment
• SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2B: Medical technologies, Digital tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI) analytics to improve surveillance and care at high Technology Readiness Levels (TRL)
• SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2C: Behavioural, social and economic impacts of the outbreak response
• SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2D: Pan-European COVID-19 cohorts
• SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2E: Networking of existing EU and international cohorts of relevance to COVID-19

Here you can read which projects are eligible within each call. The deadlines for these five calls have all been set for June 11.

• Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) – Transform Fund Call for Innovation 2020

The IsDB US $500 million Transform Fund, launched in 2018, invests in early stage innovative ideas and the scaling of innovations by providing seed money for innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs and institutions that need initial funding and growth capital to develop their ideas.

The Transform Fund Call for Innovation 2020 will focus entirely on supporting our Member Countries long-term preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This Call will operate in addition to the IsDB Group’s other wide-ranging initiatives coordinated by our Strategic Preparedness and Response Facility.

Call scope: the Call for Innovation will identify, encourage and reward innovative proposals that will benefit local communities focused on the following:

• The application of advanced technology
• Innovative health supply chain management systems
• Development of Low-cost rapid tests and screening methods
• Capacity building interventions

The Fund will look for applications specifically linked to tackling COVID-19 in relation to the following six UN Sustainable Development Goals:

• Zero Hunger
• Good Health and Well-being
• Quality Education
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

The categories of application are:

1. New Ideas with Proof of Concept, Funding Opportunity
2. Capacity Building in Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Opportunity
3. Scaling up of Innovative Projects, Funding Opportunity
4. Commercialization of Technology Funding Opportunity

Call funding:

Call criteria: This call is only open to IsDB member countries

Call deadline: 1 June 2020

• EDCTP Mobilisation of funding for COVID-19 research in sub-Saharan Africa

Call scope: EDCTP invites expressions of interest proposals for Research & Innovation Actions (RIAs) to support research activities in sub-Saharan Africa to manage and/or prevent the spread of the current COVID-19 outbreak.

Proposals must demonstrate the following:

• Addressing urgent research questions in the context of the current COVID-19 outbreak, in line with the research priorities of the Global Research Roadmap (4) and the WHO R&D Blueprint for rapid activation of R&D activities during epidemics.
• Strengthening of national and local research capacity.
• Coordination and collaboration with other research and/or humanitarian activities operational in the countries affected, following principles of good participatory practice for emerging and re-emerging pathogens (5).
• Compliance with International Council on Harmonisation – Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP), regulatory and ethical standards.
• Commitment to open access and data sharing principles.

EDCTP considers that proposals for activities of between 6 and 24 months duration would allow to contribute appropriately to this specific challenge.

Expected Impact

Proposals funded under this mechanism should answer the most pressing questions raised by responders in sub-Saharan Africa to the ongoing Public Health Emergency, as part of the efforts to manage and prevent the spread of the current pandemic. Proposals should result in new knowledge to manage and prevent the current COVID-19 outbreak, as well as strengthen the capacities of at-risk countries to manage outbreaks.

Call criteria: This call is only open to consortia comprising a minimum of three independent legal entities of which two of the legal entities shall be established in two different Participating States (European Partner States) (6) and one of the legal entities must be established in a sub-Saharan African country (7). All three legal entities shall be independent of each other.

Call funding: 4.75million; max. funding per project 500,000 – expected projects 5-10

Call deadline: 17 April 2020

On account of the limited time for this call, please consider the Cooperation & Support Actions call Capacity development for disease outbreak and epidemic response in sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with Africa CDC (click link) which is open to COVID-19 related topics. The call deadline for this action is 30 July 2020.

• Gates Foundation Grand Challenge

Grant applications are still being accepted until 22 April 2020 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation) for several Grand Challenges and Grand Challenges Explorations initiatives. The Grand Challenges family of initiatives fosters innovation to solve key global health and development problems.

In addition to the funding provided by the Gates Foundation to the joint COVID-19 response, they will be exploring with existing and new grantees – where relevant and on a case-by-case basis – opportunities in relation to COVID-19.

• Eureka – Multilateral call for solutions for COVID-19 Echo Period – Life without a vaccine

EUREKA is a publicly-funded, intergovernmental network committed to the ‘bottom-up’ principle and involving over 40 countries. EUREKA’s aim is to enhance European competitiveness by fostering innovation-driven entrepreneurship in Europe, between small and large industry, research institutes and universities.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) launched this new call supported by Eureka countries France, Denmark, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany and Estonia.

Call Scope: Participants are invited to submit research and innovation project proposals aiming to provide short to medium-term responses to COVID-19 specific needs. These may include (but are not limited to):

• Infection prevention and protection
• Sanitation technology
• Diagnostics and testing
• Therapeutics, vaccines and medicines
• Disease-tracking technology, analytical solutions for health systems
• Smart technology for COVID-19 patients
• Smart technologies and support systems for critical production and supply chains under lockdown
• Safe mobility: migration data and trends, regional risk monitoring, protection of isolated and risk groups, safe use of public transports
• Education technologies and digital workplace.

Call criteria:

• The consortium should include at least two organisations independent of each other from at least two of the participating countries.
• Funding assistance follows each National Funding Body’s (NFB) funding regulations.
• The project partners must express their willingness to cooperate, on a win-win/fair basis in the development of a new product, industrial process or service.
• The product, process or service must be innovative and there must be a technological risk involved.
• The project must have a civilian purpose.
• The project should benefit all involved partners in a well-balanced consortium.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the technologic cooperation between the participants (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure, etc.).
• The duration of the project may not exceed 12 months.
• Projects are expected to start by 3 August 2020. Participants must discuss with their NFB about the expected start date of their activities. NFB regulations may apply.
• Product, service or process implementation or market launch should happen no later than 6 months after project completion.

Each participating NFB may apply additional eligibility criteria based on their national regulations. Applicants are strongly advised, prior to submitting the application, to contact their NFB to discuss their project idea, and verify their and their project’s eligibility.

Partners from other Eureka countries or countries outside of the Eureka network can also participate, but funding must be secured within the deadlines of the call.

Call budgets:

• Austria (FFG): Flexible grants
• Canada (NRC-IRAP): Non-refundable contribution to project costs of max. 600,000 CAN dollars per project
• Denmark (IFD): Grants from 50,000 to 300,000 euro per project
• France (Bpifrance): Repayable advances from 50,000 to 3 million euro per project
• Spain (CDTI): Flexible mix-loan grants
• Turkey (TÜBİTAK): Flexible grants
• The Netherlands (RVO): Grants of up to 100,000 euro per project

Call deadline: 15 May 2020

A second call supported by the same parties will open 15 May 2020 entitled ‘Solutions for the Next Human High-Impact Pandemic’.

• Dutch Organisation for Health research & innovation (ZonMw) and National Research Organisation (NWO) accelerated research programmes on COVID-19

The Dutch cabinet will allocate a total of € 42 million for research on the most urgent COVID-19 related research questions, to enable 80-100 research issues to be investigated. Most of this budget is awarded by ZonMw and NWO.

Fast incidental funding round for COVID-19 (‘first wave’)

This call is no longer accepting applications. They have received 420 submissions of which 46-93 will be awarded a stimulus. The call may open again pending review of the submissions.

Right after the coronavirus was detected in the Netherlands, an incidental funding of € 6.5 million has been made available by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, ZonMw and NWO for targeted and urgent research on ways of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding involves medical as well as behavioural research.

Furthermore, there is an extra financial measure for creative solutions for practical (hospital) care. The grant budget is from € 7.500,- to € 15.000,-. The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) has provided funding via ZonMw for calls relating to ‘Creative Solutions and Initiatives in Tackling the Coronavirus’.

Call Scope: Funding is being provided for a range of intiatives including – but not limited to:

• Technical solutions in medical settings – novel medical equipment or means of sourcing medicine
• Innovative ideas to support vulnerable populations – including support for their caregivers (medical and non-medical)
• Creative solutions for practical dilemmas being faced both within the care sector and beyond the regular confines of this field – for example how to support the elderly in dealing with social distancing

Call noted:

• Projects may not exceed 3 months in duration
• Applicants may only request one funding options per applications
• Applicants that receive the start ‘impulse’ funding may, following completion of that phase, apply for the project ‘impulse’ funding – budget pending

Call funding options:

1. Start ‘impulse’ of € 7.500,- for assessing the feasibility or piloting ideas
2. Project ‘impulse’ of € 7.500,- up to € 15.000,- demonstration or rolling out of idea in the designated target area or within the target group

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and has a total budget of € 500.000,-.

COVID-19 research programme (‘second wave’)

An research programme of € 20-25 million is developed by ZonMW, NWO, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the medical research field. In this new programme, funding is available for three focus areas:

1. Predictive diagnostics and treatment
2. Care and prevention
3. Societal dynamics

Research organisations and other entities registered in the Netherlands, such as UMCs, nonacademic hospitals, universities, universities of applied sciences, “practoraten” (knowledge platforms in vocational (mbo) education), care organisations, research institutes, consultancy bureaus, umbrella organisations, professional organisations and patient organisations can submit a pre-proposal.

For focus area 1. Predictive diagnostics and treatment, a maximum of €8.5 million is available (€2 million of this is allocated for clinical drug studies and €1.5 million for animal-free innovations).For focus area 2. Care and prevention, a maximum of €6.5 million is available.

Per project, a maximum of €0.5 million is available. The budget should be realistic and well motivated.

The intended maximum duration of the project is 24 months.

The deadline for focus area 1 and 2 was on May 14. The deadline for Societal dynamics was on May 25.

Fast-track call data acquisition

A ‘fast-track data’ call is available to fund research on data acquisition that can only be performed now, during the COVID-19 crisis. This track funds research on issues emerging as a result of the crisis, data that can help to manage the crisis, or that can increase the learning capacity of society during a pandemic. Medical and care-related topics are excluded from this call. In total, € 1.5 million is available. Proposals can be submitted until September 1, 2020 and are evaluated on a rolling basis, meaning that if the budget is exhausted before that date, the call will be closed.

• Dutch Topsector Life Sciences & Health

The Top Sector Life Sciences & Health (LSH) has announced a special call through their communication channel Health ~ Holland. Top Sector LSH intends to invest in the field of COVID-19 by opening a call for high end public-private research proposals.

Proposals must contain the following:

• A short description of the project
• A list of (potential) consortium partners
• A rough estimate of the budget
• The expected start-and end date

Definite projects must also comply with the match call regulations.

The call deadline was moved to 17 April 2020 and depending on the submissions received may open again at a later stage.

• Innovative Medicine Initiative II

IMI2 JU -Call 21 Development of therapeutics and diagnostics combatting coronavirus infections

Call aim: Collaboration between public partners and private companies has potential to accelerate the development of therapeutics and diagnostics to tackle the current and future outbreaks. The project must address one of the following:

• Development of antivirals and other types of therapeutics to address a rapid response to the current COVID-19 outbreak Relevant “clinical ready”-assets e.g approved therapies or compounds in development. If repurposing proposed, need for preliminary rationale of the compound’s potential efficacy against COVID-19.
• Development of therapeutics to address the current and/or future coronavirus outbreaks Identification of new potential assets and approaches including preventive strategies and combination approaches, addressing also potential resistance, optimisation of promising treatments used in rapid response (e.g. reformulation).
• Development of diagnostics, ensuring rapid evaluation of candidates based on existing technologies. Essential for clinical trials of new or repurposed drugs, to help stratify patients and assess treatment efficiency (surrogate endpoint such as viral clearance).
• Development of fast and reliable tools that go beyond the state of the art for detection of COVID-19 carriers and symptomatic individuals suspected of COVID-19 infection Essential to manage the outbreak, isolate patients at risk and treat people accordingly. Differentiation and identification of respiratory pathogens with similar clinical symptoms (e.g. flu, respiratory syncytial virus, other viruses or bacteria) and/or detection of emerging pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 crucial. This can be achieved through point-of-care (POC) testing or centralised testing.

Preventive vaccines are excluded from this call. To be eligible, a consortium should have at least three independent legal entities, each established in a different Member State or associated country.

Call deadline: 31 March 2020 – 17.00 GMT+1

Call budget: € 45,000,000

• Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA) Tender

Tender call: Call for tenders concerning the Provision of a Study Exploring the Feasibility of and Identifying Options for Physical Stockpiling of Vaccines. Tender aim: the provision of a study within 18 months on

1. exploring the feasibility of and identifying options for physical stockpiling of vaccines; and
2. developing a concept for a mechanism for exchanging vaccine supplies from one EU member state to another in case of an outbreak.

Tender specifics:

• The contractor must map and analyse already established physical stockpiles operating on national and multilateral level in the European Union, as well as physical stockpiling systems operated by the World Health Organisation10 and UNICEF and GAVI.
• At least three options for physical and/or virtual stockpiling of vaccines in the European Union must be identified, described, analysed and prioritised in terms of feasibility and effectiveness.
• The contractor must develop a concept for a mechanism for exchanging vaccine supplies between Member States in case of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease or for routine operations.

Tender deadline: 6 April 2020 – 17.00, GMT+1

• The European Vaccine Infrastructure (EVI) TRANSVAC2 – Supporting the development of vaccines against COVID19

Support scope: researchers at SMEs, industry and public institutions working on COVID19 may apply to make use of the high-quality technical vaccine development services offered by TRANSVAC. This includes, but is not limited to: animal models,  adjuvant formulation , clinical trial support and regulatory support.
Cost: Most services will be free of charge

Support: Deadline: 15 April 2020

Source: TRANSVAC