Nordic region and Estonia join together on major grant for COVID-19 research

Five Nordic research projects on COVID-19 are now being launched. The projects will take advantage of the Nordic countries’ unique health data to advance the knowledge base about COVID-19 for the benefit of the Nordic region and the entire world.

NordForsk, an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers, is providing funding for the COVID-19 research projects together with a number of national research agencies from across the Nordic region and Estonia. 

Facts: Nordic Health Data Research Projects on Covid-19

NordForsk received 17 eligible proposals. These were assessed by an international expert panel as well as external experts. Five projects have been selected to receive approximately NOK 10 million each.

Funded projects focus on a wide range of research topics, including pregnancy progression, smoking, and mental health.

Two projects involve researchers from Finland. Research Professor Sakari Karvonen (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) will coordinate a group included in the consortium Addressing the Smoking Paradox in the Etiology of COVID-19 through Population-Based Studies and Associate Professor Lasse Leskelä (Aalto University) will coordinate a group included in the consortium Data Streams and Mathematical Modelling Pipelines to Support Preparedness and Decision Making for COVID-19 and Future Pandemics.

The projects are designed to generate new knowledge that can help to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers throughout the Nordic countries and Estonia are taking part in this large-scale collaborative initiative, which has been awarded roughly NOK 53 million in funding.

Funders: Swedish Research Council, Research Council of Norway, Academy of Finland, Icelandic Centre for Research, Innovation Fund Denmark and Estonian Research Council.