The European Commission has launched a rapid Horizon 2020 call under Societal Challenge 1 entitled ”SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2: Second call for an Expression of Interest for innovative and rapid health-related approaches to respond to COVID-19 and to deliver quick results for society for a higher level of preparedness of health systems”. The highly anticipated call was initially supposed to open on 12 May, but was delayed for a week.
The call is composed of five topics:
- SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2A Repurposing of manufacturing for vital medical supplies and equipment (Innovation Action; €23 million);
- SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2B Medical technologies, Digital tools and Artificial Intelligence analytics to improve surveillance and care at high Technology Readiness Levels (Innovation Action; €56 million);
- SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2C Behavioural, social and economic impacts of the outbreak responses (Research and Innovation Action; €20 million);
- SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2D Pan-European COVID-19 cohorts (Research and Innovation Action; €20 million);
- SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2E Collaboration of existing EU and international cohorts of relevance to COVID-19 (Coordination and Support Action; €3 million).
This call complements the first rapid SC1 call, which closed earlier this year and funded 18 projects. The focus in this round is not to develop new diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccines, but rather to strengthen capacity to manufacture and deploy readily available solutions, as well as to improve understanding of the behavioural and socio-economic impacts of the epidemic.
The deadline for submission of proposals is on 11 June 2020 and the indicative budget amounts to €122 million.
On Wednesday 20 May 2020, between 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., the Commission will hold an online information session for prospective applicants. The webcast can be followed online without prior registration.
UEL Research, Innovation and Impact 