Within Horizon Europe, the largest European research and innovation programme (2021-2027), the Commission has selected 11 new projects worth €120 million to support and enable urgent research on coronavirus and its variants. This funding is one of the many research and innovation actions undertaken to combat coronavirus and contributes to the Commission’s overall action to prevent and mitigate the impact of coronavirus and its variants and to provide an appropriate response, in line with the new European Biological Defence Preparedness Plan, HERA Incubator.
The 11 projects selected involve 312 research teams from 40 countries, 38 from 23 countries outside the EU.
Most projects will focus on clinical trials for new treatments and vaccines and the development of large-scale COVID-19 cohorts and networks across Europe’s borders, establishing links with European initiatives. Other projects will strengthen and broaden access to research infrastructures that provide services or are needed to share data, skills and research resources among researchers, in order to enable research on coronavirus and its variants. These infrastructures include those already in place, such as the European data platform on COVID-19, and the relevant European life sciences research infrastructures.
The selected consortia will work with other relevant projects and initiatives at national, regional and international level to maximise synergies and complementarity and avoid duplication of research activities. They will contribute to the establishment of the European Authority for Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies (HERA), which will enable the EU to better anticipate and address future pandemics.