The team of the Molecular and Therapeutic Pathology of Atherothrombotic and Ischemic Diseases «ICCC Cardiovascular Programme» research group, led by Dr. Lina Badimon, from the Sant Pau-IIB Sant Pau Research Institute, is participating in the COVIRNA project, which is coordinated by the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH). This is one of the 23 research projects that have been awarded within the framework of the Horizon 2020 call for Expression of Interest. The work aims to promote the development of a new diagnostic test to predict the results of Covid-19 for patients and to improve cooperation between European research institutions to strengthen the response to the pandemic.
On 19 May 2020, the European Commission launched the Second Call for Expression of Interest for innovative and rapid health-related approaches to respond to Covid-19 and deliver rapid results to society for a higher level of preparedness of health systems (SC1-PHECORONAVIRUS-2020-2) in the framework of the ERAvsCORONA Action Plan. This call mobilises an overall budget of EUR 128.2 million, mainly from the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Framework Programme as part of the Commission’s EUR 1.4 billion commitment to the Global Coronavirus Response. Complementing a first call aimed at advancing knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 in relation to possible clinical and public health measures, this second call focused on the rapid development (within 3-24 months) of health-based technology solutions to manage and contain this current and future outbreak.
In this context, and based on the network developed within EU-CardioRNA («Catallyzing transcriptomics research in cardiovascular disease») COST Action, a consortium of 15 partners from academic and innovative SMEs voted their expertise and resources (mainly providing access to several European clinical cohorts of Covid-19) to build a multidisciplinary and multi-centre study with the common objective of improving individualised surveillance, care and monitoring of Covid-19 patients in the context of the current pandemic.
With the theme SC1-PHE-coronavirus-2B (Medical Technologies, Digital Tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve surveillance and care at high levels of technological preparedness), the COVIRNA project started in November 2020 and will last 24 months.
