What are research infrastructures?
Research infrastructures are facilities that provide resources and services for research communities to conduct research and foster innovation. Many are relevant to tackling the current coronavirus outbreak.
Highlights
- 27 March 2020 - Exscalate4CoV (E4C) invites collaboration to screen potential drugs
Recent and ongoing projects and initiatives
European Virus Archive
The European Virus Archive (EVA-Global) is a virtual collection for human, animal and plant viruses, that provides researchers with the necessary material for diagnosing coronavirus infection. This initiative is built on long-standing investments by the EU through three consecutive grants since 2009 and until 2023 for a total of €32.2 million.
- EVA-GLOBAL - Project details
- EVAg - Project details
- EVA - Project details
- Story: The European Virus Archive Global
- Story: Collecting the world's viruses, empowering urgent research
- Video: Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
The EXSCALATE platform
Stemming from the Antarex project, EXCALATE is operational at the Italian Supercomputer in CINECA, analysing COVID-19 proteins based on data available from the scientific community in order to accelerate the search of an effective therapy against the pandemic virus. Antarex was supported by a €3.1 million EU grant.
- EXSCALATE website
- Project details
- Story: Using European supercomputing to treat the coronavirus
- Story: ‘Needle in a haystack’: The hunt for coronavirus drug compounds in a Belgian biosafety lab
Exscalate4CoV calls for collaboration to screen potential drugs
E4C invites organisations to submit proposals for screening of their compounds for efficacy profiling on the E4C Biology platforms, notably through EXaSCale smArt pLatform Against paThogEns, the first computational platform dedicated to addressing the need to promptly respond to a pandemic crisis. Full criteria and conditions are defined in the “Drug-Box” submission portal on the E4C website.
- Story: Repurposing drugs and networks can help find outbreak treatments against the clock
- Story: New drugs to help fight COVID-19: "It is doable, but you need time."
- Video: A European supercomputer is searching to find potential coronavirus treatments
- Article: Testing osteoporosis drug for COVID-19 treatment
- Commission awards €1 million, financed under the Emergency Support Instrument, to support the conduct of a clinical trial for repurposing Raloxifene
- Video: The search for antivirals
TRANSVAC2
TRANSVAC2 supports a European vaccine research and development infrastructure, offering researchers the opportunity to apply for its wide range of technical vaccine development services at no cost. Researchers developing vaccine candidates against COVID19 are encouraged to apply. TRANSVAC2 started in May 2017 with a €10.6 million EU grant.
- TRANSVAC2 website
- Project details
- Call for applications
- Story: Infrastructure to accelerate vaccine development
HPC Centre of Excellence for Computational Biomolecular Research (BioExcel)
The applications of this centre or excellence can be used for on-demand, large-scale virtual screening of potential medical compounds such as small molecule drugs, antibodies etc. The applicability depends on the specific case of pandemic cause. Since 2015 BioExcel has received a total of €12.8 million in EU grants.
- BioExcel website
- Project details
- Story: European biomolecular research centre supporting the development of COVID-19 treatments
EuroHPC Joint Undertaking
The access policy of this joint undertaking foresees prioritised and immediate access to its supercomputers for emergencies - as is the case in pandemic crises.
EOSC-Life
This initiative brings together 13 biological and medical pan-European research infrastructures that facilitate the sharing of raw data and research outputs, and are making available to researchers analysis pipelines and computational power to analyse or re-perform analyses related to COVID-19. EOSC-Life is supported by a €23.75 million EU grant.
ACCELERATE
ACCELERATE has allowed CERIC, the Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium, to launch a call for fast track access to Covid-19 related research. Applicants will be able to access selected instruments without the regular evaluation procedure. ACCELERATE is supported by a €3.3 million EU grant.