14 May 2020 | We are working together to fight the spread of the coronavirus. At EuroTech, we are using our network of top-notch researchers to bring the right people together and work full speed across institutional and geographical borders.
Currently, the EuroTech members are putting together an overview of researchers, projects, and labs that are working in the field at all six partners. European collaboration is more than ever crucial to explore sustainable solutions for the challenges the continent faces these days.
Each of the six member universities has mobilised forces massively for finding solutions and supporting hospitals and governments. A non-exhaustive list:
At DTU, more than 50 research project applications have been submitted for funding to public and private foundations (as of 17/04). Moreover, several initiatives are evolving directly with national and regional agencies and with hospitals.
- DTU laboratories will be involved as part of the national Danish strategy to test much more people for COVID-19 than has been the case so far.
- DTU statisticians are engaged in the national task force with the health care authorities preparing analyses and foresight including preparing the exit strategy that shall be deployed when Denmark transitions from the current lockdown to gradual reopening of society.
Find an overview of corona-related DTU projects here: www.dtu.dk/english/About/PRESS-ROOM/themes/coronavirus
EPFL is up and running where its research activities can contribute to the fight against COVID-19. The EPFL COVID-19 academic committee has given the green light to a dozen research projects directly addressing the COVID-19 crisis. In their research, teams from all the Schools work on priority aspects of the pandemic: preventing or tracking contagion, cure and vaccines, diagnostics and testing, and policy and data. Several teams are working together with partner institutions in Switzerland.
This page lists current research projects at EPFL that address the pandemic: www.epfl.ch/research/covid-19-research
Professors and researchers at L’X are contributing to the fight against COVID-19 with proposals on approaches to testing, the allocation of intensive care beds or the development of an app to prevent risks of exposure. A few examples:
- Researchers and Laboratories are taking initiatives in numbers
- Group testing, key for a faster recovery
- Propagation of Shocks in Global Value Chains
Several entrepreneur alumni have launched initiatives and mobilised their start-ups to take part in the fight against the epidemic, such as Wingly to transport medical personnel by air, or Hello Zack with its solidarity-based used goods sorting system in support of Paris Hospitals. The Drahi-X Novation Center, along with the LadHyX and Valéo, has started producing protection equipment to fight against COVID-19 in its prototyping facility. The goal is to produce 500 face shields for Gustave Roussy Hospital and then to carry on with the initiative in response to requests from Lyon University Hospital, ULG Liège and Trappes Hospital. Learn more about these and other entrepreneurial activities here: www.polytechnique.edu/en/content/covid-19-entrepreneurship-resilient-and-committed
L’X students are very engaged, too. Here a couple of examples:
You can also check the news section for further information: www.polytechnique.edu/en/news
Researchers in more than 30 Technion labs are working round the clock to help fight the spread of COVID-19 (as of 25/03). Their research includes early detection and diagnosis of the virus, development of a vaccine and therapies, and designing robotic solutions for remote monitoring and care of patients.
“Technion is at the forefront of science and technology worldwide, and during this time of crisis, we are collaborating closely with the health system and the hospitals in order to find immediate solutions to the challenges they are facing,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “We are working on advanced diagnostic techniques, personalized medical treatment, technologies that enable pinpointed drug delivery, treatment protocols based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, data mining and Big Data management, developing robots for remote medical care, and more. Technion’s added value is apparent in the close interaction between medicine and engineering at our university, and in the interdisciplinary collaborations that are generating rapid and sophisticated solutions to help fight COVID-19.”
An extensive overview of the works ongoing is listed here: https://presidentsreport.technion.ac.il/covid-19-news-and-updates/
A list of Technion researchers can be found here: www.technion.ac.il/en/2020/03/technion-researchers-covid-19
And check out this page for the latest COVID-19 Technion Innovations: https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2020/05/covid-19-technion-innovations/
Challenge-based learning is one of the core characteristics of education at TU/e and is employed to rise to the challenge in this world crisis. TU/e mobilises students and entrepreneurial student teams, which in turn are supported by a large group of researchers at all departments of the university. The purpose is to match and to bundle initiatives, ideas, brainpower and services through a platform of supply and demand. And to join forces with parties from outside the TU/e like hospitals, companies and service providers. TU/e has set up a platform where supply and demand, problem owners and solution providers, are brokered: www.tue.nl/en/tue-campus/tue-innovation-space/tue-against-covid-19
Learn more about how to use this platform here: www.tue.nl/en/tue-campus/tue-innovation-space/tue-against-covid-19/about-tue-against-covid-19/
Scientists at TU/e have been making daily predictions of the number of infections and deaths in several countries. Follow the situation here: www.tue.nl/en/news/news-overview/11-03-2020-eindhoven-data-scientists-take-on-corona-data-to-predict-growth-of-new-infections/
TUM and its university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar are at the forefront of finding solutions, too. The count amounts to around 270 COVID-19-related research projects – planned, ongoing, and completed ones (as of 08/04). The thematic focus is not limited to virological or epidemiological studies, but considers the entire range of research activities. This includes, for example, projects in the social sciences on the impact of exogenous shocks – of which the current pandemic is an example – on the economy and society, as well as any interdisciplinary project ideas by AI researchers and researchers in the medical fields. The university hospital is participating in studies on new medications for people suffering from COVID-19. As part of a clinical study, scientifically active physicians are treating patients suffering from COVID-19 with medications that are still undergoing clinical trials, the polymerase inhibitor Remdesivir among others. The international study will investigate the efficacy and safety of the active ingredient in moderately and seriously ill patients.
Find news about TUM’s coronavirus-related activties here: www.tum.de/en/about-tum/news/covid-19
How you can help
Are you interested in joining the fight? Check out the following links:
- The European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, has set up the following platform that provides an overview of the latest H2020 calls tackling the COVID-19 outbreak: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/covid-19
- The following page of the European Commission provides an overview of coronavirus research and innovation projects and initiatives: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/health-research-and-innovation/coronavirus-research-and-innovation_en
- Science|Business has also compiled a database of funding opportunities: https://sciencebusiness.net/covid-19/funding-database?country=All&field_date_application_deadline=1&funder=All&keywords=All&s=&sort_by=field_date_application_deadline&sort_order=ASC
- Science Europe provides an overview of national funding that is currently available for COVID-19 projects: www.scienceeurope.org/our-priorities/covid-19/calls-for-proposals/
- The COVID-19 Data Portal brings together relevant datasets in an effort to accelerate coronavirus research. It enables researchers to upload, access and analyse COVID-19 related reference data and specialist datasets: www.covid19dataportal.org
- The AI-Robotics vs COVID-19 initiative aims to create a unique repository that is easily accessible to all citizens, stakeholders and policymakers: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/join-ai-robotics-vs-covid-19-initiative-european-ai-alliance
- PRACE welcomes project proposals requesting computing resources to contribute to the mitigation of the impact of COVID-19: https://prace-ri.eu/wp-content/uploads/PRACE_COVID-19_Call_v3.pdf
- The EGI Foundation and the US-based Open Science Grid (OSG) have launched a joint call supporting computational and data intensive COVID-19 research projects: https://www.egi.eu/egi-call-for-covid-19-research-projects/
- The EUvsVirus initiative of the European Commission is matching successful projects from a Europe-wide hackathon with partners from academia, industry, etc. in order to get them implemented: https://www.euvsvirus.org/results/ and https://www.euvsvirus.org/nextsteps/
- Crowdhelix launched an open access match-making platform for COVID 19 researchers to build an international community: https://www.crowdhelix.com The Enterprise Europe Network has been operating another match-making platform under the name “Care & Industry together against CORONA”: https://care-industry-together-against-corona.b2match.io/
- SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) has gathered links to various opportunities for engagement: www.sapea.info/coronavirus/
