Four Projects Awarded in COVID-19 Call

The outbreak of COVID-19 has overshadowed the beginning of 2020. While the whole world is uniting forces and battling the disease, it is still very uncertain how the situation will develop. Nevertheless, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health took quick action to set up a call at the end of March. In only one month four projects have been awarded and were granted PPP Allowance to start their research.

Taking action

COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020. To prevent the disease from spreading, research projects have been set up at a rapid pace. International stakeholders in the public and private sector are collaborating to contain the spread of the COVID-19 and to prevent future outbreaks. Click here to stay up to date on COVID-19 funding opportunities.

Since the foundation of Top Sector LSH, it has supported numerous projects with research into coronaviruses. At the end of March, Health~Holland set up a call for COVID-19 related research proposals. In only one month four projects have been awarded by the Health~Holland board and are now ready to start their research. Twenty-five other COVID-19 research proposals have been submitted and are currently under evaluation of the evaluation committee. Below the four awarded projects are outlined shortly.

  1. Electrocardiogram analysis for early detection of cardiovascular diseases in COVID-19
    This project started on 20 April and will take 14 weeks to complete. The consortium partners of this project are University Medical Center Utrecht, Dutch Cardiovascular Alliance and Peacs. The goal of this project is to accelerate and improve quality of the non-invasive 12-lead ECG recording and data analysis to support early detection of cardiovascular disease in COVID-19 patients.
  2. Leiden joins forces to develop improved coronavirus vaccines
    This project started in May 2020 and will take 2 years to complete. The consortium partners of this project are Leiden University Medical Center, ISA Therapeutics, and Immunetune, which are all based in Leiden. The goal of this project is developing enhanced vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses.
  3. Rapid point of care tests to detect COVID-19
    This project starts in July 2020 and will take one year to complete. The consortium partners of this project are Amsterdam Medical Center and Ingenasa. The goal of this project is rapid point of care tests to determine infection and/or past infection.
  4. Innovative Antibody Therapies Against COVID-19
    This project started in May 2020 and will take two years to complete. The consortium partners of this project are Utrecht University, Erasmus Medical Center and Harbour Antibodies. The goal of this project is to develop ultra-potent binding domains (SBDs) and antibodies to neutralise the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
Four Projects Awarded in COVID-19 Call

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