Research and Innovation

The European Commission has decided to fund another project as part of its emergency call for urgently needed research and innovation into the coronavirus. This means it will support 18 projects, involving 140 research teams with a total of €48.5 million from Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme.

The project, called HG nCoV19 test and coordinated by an Irish SME, will develop and validate rapid molecular diagnostic test for the novel coronavirus.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said:

"Front-line health workers need to diagnose coronavirus more quickly and more accurately. This reduces the risk of further spread of the virus. I am happy that we can add another project to the EU-funded effort to develop rapid diagnostics."

The European Commission has added its support to a call to the scholarly publishing community urging them to make Covid-19 and coronavirus publications and the data supporting them immediately accessible via public repositories to support the ongoing public health efforts.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said:

"I welcome this important international initiative that underlines the vital need of working together and providing researchers in Europe and around the world access to the research and data they need. Open access is already a tangible reality in the EU. We can therefore lead by example thanks to our scientific expertise, technological development and innovation capacity, while cooperating closely with international partners."