Research infrastructures and health research against the COVID-19 variants

The European Commission is launching Horizon Europe (HE) emergency calls for research into coronavirus variants. The very first calls of HE are to be launched in synergy between the Health cluster and Research infrastructures priority. Budget for these calls is additional to the Horizon Europe one for these priorities.

The Outcomes are expected to contribute to the building of the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). These emergency calls for RIs along with the ones for Health aim to:

• Establish new and/or build on existing large-scale, multi-centre and regional or multinational cohorts, including beyond Europe's borders, which should rapidly advance the knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants. Budget € 7-10 M.
• Develop therapeutics or vaccines against SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, having already completed preclinical development in clinical studies. Budget € 3-10 M.
• Support research infrastructures to:
  • to   speed up data sharing. It is important to prevent even future pandemics. Budget € 12 M.
  • and deliver fast research support and expertise, to confront the coronavirus variants and to be ready for future epidemics. A network of RIs dealing with COVID-19 variants could be formed. Budget € 21 M.

Collaboration with other initiatives on European and national levels is expected (e.g. VACCELERATE, ORCHESTRA cohort, EU COVID-19 data platform, PHIRI). These emergency calls will tackle the short to medium-term threat and simultaneously prepare for the future.

The calls will open for submissions on 13 April and the deadline for submission is 6 May 2021.

For detailed information look at the Commission PowerPoint presentation in here and/or watch the informal recording at: https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/horizon-europe-focused-actions-in-research-infrastructures-and-health-to-target-covid-19-variants .

The emergency calls are posted on the Portal now, and will be opened for submission on 13 April 2021.

•             HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EMERGENCY-01: FAIR and open data sharing in support to European preparedness for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-infra-2021-emergency-01  

•             HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EMERGENCY-02: Research infrastructure services for rapid research responses to COVID-19 and other infectious disease epidemics. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-infra-2021-emergency-02  

•             HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CORONA-01-01: Vaccines & therapeutic clinical trials to boost COVID-19 prevention and treatment. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-hlth-2021-corona-01-01  

•             HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CORONA-01-02: Cohorts united against COVID-19 variants of concern. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-hlth-2021-corona-01-02