BRIEF—COVID-19: Commission funds vaccine and treatment development projects

Following the publication of a 10 million ($11.14 million) call in January, the European Commission has secured an additional 37.5 million euros for urgently needed research on new coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine development, treatment and diagnostics.

This action is part of the coordinated European Union response to the public health threat of COVID-19. With the additional amount from the Horizon 2020 program, the Commission is scaling up the emergency call launched in January to fight the COVID-19 outbreak to 47.5 million euros.

This allowed the selection of 17 projects involving 136 research teams from across the EU and beyond, which will start working on developing vaccines, new treatments, diagnostic tests and medical systems aimed at preventing the spread of the Coronavirus.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The emergency funding from Horizon 2020 enables researchers to work immediately to tackle the outbreak of the Coronavirus on several fronts. Seeing the research community getting in action so rapidly gives us new hope that we will soon be one step closer to our goal of stopping the spread of the virus.”

The Commission is currently negotiating grant agreements with the selected beneficiaries. More information is available in this press release.