The Minister of Higher Education and Science and the Minister of Health have authorised an emergency grant of DKK 88 million to 19 research projects at research institutions in the public sector, aiming to acquire new knowledge and find new solutions in the fight against COVID-19 as quickly as possible.
The 19 research projects are working on such diverse topics as the invention of an alternative type of respirator to support the health system; developing a lightning-quick test that can determine if a patient is infected within 30 minutes; and investigating whether the antibodies produced by patients with COVID-19 could boost immunity in new patients.
In other words, all 19 projects have great potential in the fight against COVID-19. Follow the link below for more information about the 19 research projects.
The government has been determined to act quickly. Therefore, when assessing the projects, it was vital to select research projects on COVID-19 that could be launched immediately. In this way, potentially valuable research results could benefit citizens, the health care system and society as a whole as quickly as possible. In the box below you can read more about the process of selecting the 19 COVID-19-related research projects.
Process for the allocation of grants for COVID-19-related research projects:
1. The Deans of the four Faculties of Health Sciences, the Prorector of DTU and an Executive Vice President at Statens Serum Institut (SSI) were asked to call for proposals for promising COVID-19-related research projects from researchers at their own institutions, and submit them to the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education. The process of obtaining these proposals involved close contact with hospitals. In addition, the four Faculties of Health Sciences and the Prorector of DTU were asked to conduct a screening of the research projects to find those most worthy of support.
2. The health authorities under the Ministry of Health then carried out an academic appraisal of the relevance of the potential of the applications submitted, based on an assessment of existing and anticipated future needs for research-based knowledge and solutions.
3. On the basis of this academic relevance assessment, The Minister of Higher Education and Science in collaboration with the Minister of Health decided which research projects were to be awarded grants.