Academy of Finland grants €10m for COVID-19 vaccine and drug development projects

The Academy of Finland has selected the projects to be funded from the call for research into COVID-19 vaccines and pharmaceutical development. Because of the urgency of the objectives of this special call, the Academy funded high-quality projects that already have ongoing SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and drug development research or research into the efficacy, safety and impact of coronavirus vaccines and medicines.

The call attracted 31 applications from a total of 11 research organisations. Of these, the Academy funded ten applications from seven organisations. Six of the funded applications were consortium applications and four were individual applications. Women account for 25 per cent of the funding recipients. Three of the projects focus on vaccine research and seven on pharmaceutical research. Four of these involve clinical patient work.

Through two special calls organised this year, the Academy has funded 54 projects related to the coronavirus pandemic and the mitigation of its effects. The total funding comes to 18.5 million euros. In addition, the Academy also has other funding instruments that support research in the field. For instance, many research infrastructures play a key role in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The call for research into COVID-19 vaccines and pharmaceutical development was opened on 19 May 2020. It was made possible thanks to an appropriation of 10 million euros to research in this field in the Finnish Government’s supplementary budget proposal.

Funding was granted for vaccine and drug development research related to one or several of the following themes:

• promoting the treatment of patients with COVID-19
• preventing more severe forms of COVID-19
• developing vaccines or medicines for COVID-19
• analysing the efficacy, safety and impact of vaccines and medicines for COVID-19
• preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

• List of funded projects (pdf)