Western Balkans

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

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News archive - New research projects on Coronavirus include also WB partners

On 30 January 2020, the European Commission launched a request for expressions of interest entitled “SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020: Advancing knowledge for the clinical and public health response to the [COVID-19] epidemic” with a budget of €10 million subsequently increased up to €48.5 million. Two partners from Western Balkan Countries are also amongst recipients of these grants: Public Health Institute from Albania and People to People Health Foundation from North Macedonia.

Such rapid reaction is made possible by the standing budget line for emergency research funds that the Commission maintains as part of the Horizon 2020annual work programmes for Health research. This enabled 17 projects to be short-listed for funding as the EC announced on 6 March 2020, to which an 18thproject was added in late March.

In total, the 18 projects involve 140 research teams from across the EU and beyond who will work on:

Improving epidemiology and public health, including our preparedness and response to outbreaks. These projects will help develop better monitoring systems in order to effectively prevent and control the spread of the virus, as well as contribute to the assessment of social dynamics.
Rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests. Increased efforts will concentrate on enabling front-line health workers to make the diagnosis more quickly and more accurately, which will in turn reduce the risk of further spread of the virus.
New treatments, in which a dual approach will be adopted. Firstly, accelerating the development of new treatments currently in the pipeline (including therapeutic peptides, monoclonal antibodies and broad-spectrum antivirals), and secondly, screening and identifying molecules that could work against the virus, using advanced modelling and computing techniques.
Development of new vaccines. The research will focus on developing a prophylactic vaccine and a therapeutic vaccine, which will be used for prevention and treatment respectively. The projects are listed below.

The projects are listed in the attached Flyer.

Partners from Western Balkans are taking part in following two projects:

Disclaimer: For each project, funding and composition of the consortium is subject to final European Commission decision and signature of Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement.

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/research_and_innovation/research_by_area/documents/ec_rtd_cv-projects.pdf

Country

Belgium

Geographical focus

European Union (EU 27)
H2020

Scientifc field / Thematic focus

Cross-thematic/Interdisciplinary

Attachments

ec_rtd_cv-projects.pdf (pdf, 812.92Kb)