Three More Projects Awarded in COVID-19 Call

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. Top Sector Life Sciences & Health has taken quick action to set up a COVID-19 call at the end of March. Three more projects have been awarded and are granted PPP Allowance to start their research.

Taking action

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. Earlier this week we announced that in only one month four projects were awarded by the Health~Holland board. Currently, three more projects have been awarded and are granted PPP Allowance to start their research. Twenty-two other COVID-19 research proposals have been submitted and are currently under evaluation of the evaluation committee. Below the three awarded projects are outlined shortly.

1. Novel drugs to treat and prevent COVID-19
   This project started on 1 May and will take 2 years to complete. The consortium partners of this project are Utrecht University, Radboud University, Leiden University Medical Center, Protinhi Therapeutics and Avivia. The goal of this project is to develop novel drugs to treat and prevent COVID-19 and future corona outbreaks.
2. Portable device for fast, reliable corona testing on the spot
   This project started on 1 May and will take 1 year to complete. The consortium partners of this project are University of Twente, Medisch Spectrum Twente, LabMicTA and ECsens B.V. The goal of this project is to develop a portable device that can be safely used anywhere: at hospital admission sites, nursing homes, airports, etcetera. It is designed to be easy-to-use, fast (few minutes) and very sensitive: it could potentially detect the presence of coronavirus after only shortly after getting infected.
3. Targeted vaccination against current and future corona viruses
   This project starts on the 1st of June 2020 and will take 2 years to complete. The consortium partners of this project are Amsterdam University Medical Center and CimCure B.V. The goal of this project is to develop a targeted vaccine against critical domains in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, to be used for current and future coronaviruses.