Last week Horizon 2020 opened five new calls, all with their deadline on June 11^th,  in order to curb the spread of the virus. For example, are you developing new medical products, an Artificial Intelligence solution or research into human behaviour? Then you may be eligible for:

SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2A: Repurposing of manufacturing for vital medical supplies and equipment

Scope: This call focuses on re-orientation and repurposing of production capacities to meet the urgent needs of our societies for vital medical supplies and equipment. Proposals may cover one of the following topics:

• Repurposing, adapting and ramping-up production lines to quickly adjust to new and urgent production needs, such as the production of medical equipment or automated systems of disinfection.
• Demonstrate flexible models for supply chains in case of disruption of these chains.
• Automation technologies that are less dependent on the presence of work force in factories.
• Qualification of operators/technicians for new or repurposed production lines.

Activities should start at least at TRL 6 and achieve TRL 8 at the end of the project.

Impact: To support industry and interested parties, in particular SMEs, by providing services for design, assessment, testing and regulatory issues. Deliver results within 3-18 months to end-users at scale.

Types of action: Innovation action*

Contribution: between EUR 5 and 6 million

Deadline: 11 June 2020, 17:00 PM Brussels Time

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)

Scope: Innovation actions to support solutions that are either 1) close-to-market (TRL 7) in one of the COVID-19 areas mentioned below and that have already received (or are about to receive) the CE marking to proceed to large scale testing, piloting and deployment operations in critical healthcare areas (or wherever else is relevant) or 2) Support market innovation (from lab-to-fab) for further developing and maturing innovative solutions that have already been validated in lab environments (TRL 6-7 or higher) with the aim to help accelerate developments and achieve conformity assessment (CE marking). Proposals should address one of the following areas:

• Fast, cost-effective and easily deployable sampling, screening, diagnostic and prognostic systems.
• Environmental surveillance systems and data analytics as a sentinel for viral (re)emergence and spread in communities.
• Low cost sensors, smart wearable devices and robotics/AI for telemedicine, telepresence and continuous remote monitoring of patient parameters.
• Improvements in protection of healthcare practitioners and the general public, for example filtering properties of fabrics for face masks.
• Innovative data-driven services and tools combining assets from various relevant privately held and/or publicly available sources.

Impact: To accelerate the deployment and market uptake of mature health technologies for the prevention and optimised treatment of the COVID-19 disease, by delivering results within 3-24 months to end-users at scale.

Types of action: Innovation action

Contribution: between EUR 2 and 5 million (up to EUR 10 million may be requested in case of financial support to third parties)

Deadline: 11 June 2020, 17:00 PM Brussels Time

SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2C: Behavioural, social and economic impacts of the outbreak response

Scope: Proposals should address the following topics whilst analysing and comparing outbreak responses across Europe, its impact on human behaviour and social dynamics, the immediate and long-term mental health and health inequalities:

• how to mitigate social and economic impacts of the outbreak response related to health systems;
• identify non-intended consequences of epidemic-control decisions;
• and provide answers to social dynamics of the outbreak and the related public health response.

Impact: To provide health authorities with guidance for further public health interventions, and to support implementation of actions to; mitigate or manage consequences of current policies, and to better tailor future pandemic management strategies e.g. on confinement. To deliver results within 3 – 36 months to end-users at scale.

Types of action: Research and Innovation action*

Contribution: between EUR 4 and 10 million

Deadline: 11 June 2020, 17:00 PM Brussels Time

SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2D: Pan-European COVID-19 cohorts

Scope: Proposals under this call are expected to:

• establish new and/or build on existing large-scale cohorts in order to rapidly advance the knowledge on the control of the virus. The population-based COVID-19 cohort should include non-infected and infected individuals;
• develop evidence-based recommendations for effective prevention of the spreading;
• offer protection of the population in the coming months/years;
• and optimize treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Impact: In the short-term, to provide robust evidence on the best strategies for the control the SARS-CoV-2 spread and the protection of the population, as well as the optimized clinical management and treatment of COVID-19 patients.

In the medium/long-term, to evaluate the impact of vaccination and provide robust evidence on best vaccine options and strategies.

In the short/long-term, to assess the impact of COVID-19 on health and its effects on socio-economic features of individuals and propose recommendations for the optimal management of future outbreak.

Types of action: Research and Innovation action*

Contribution: between EUR 15-20 million

Deadline: 11 June 2020, 17:00 PM Brussels Time

SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2E: Networking of existing EU and international cohorts of relevance to COVID-19

Scope: Proposals under this call should focus on supporting international networking of existing cohorts in order to extract jointly agreed standardized data on COVID-19 diagnosed/serotyped and matched non-infected individuals. This to help in the identification of key factors influencing the susceptibility to infection and clinical manifestation, to assess the optimized therapeutic and clinical management options, and to derive lessons on the health and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. They should develop cohort readiness to adapt rapidly to future crisis.

Impact: The following impact is expected:

• Pooling of data from multiple existing cohorts that will inform on key aspects related to COVID-19, providing evidence-based recommendations.
• Creating a cohort framework to rapidly address pandemics in the future.

Types of action: Coordination and support action**

Contribution: between EUR 2 and 3 million

Deadline: 11 June 2020, 17:00 PM Brussels Time

*At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.

** At least one legal entity established in an EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country.

Stay up to date about COVID-19 grants

We believe that all projects addressing the crisis should be eligible for support. That’s why Hezelburcht keeps a close eye on all relevant COVID-19 grant schemes. We regularly update this article with all open and closed calls. Contact us and immediately explore the possibilities for your project.

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