31/03/2020 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission announced, on Tuesday 31 March, that it would fund a new project under its emergency call for research to fight the COVID-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12453/7). The new project, called 'HG nCoV19 test', coordinated by an Irish SME will develop and validate a rapid molecular diagnostic test. The Commissioner for Innovation and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, welcomed this initiative and stressed that healthcare workers need to be able to diagnose the virus more quickly and accurately. "This brings the number of projects supported to 18, the total number of research teams involved in this exercise to 140 and the total budget from the Horizon 2020 programme to €48.5 million", said the spokesperson in charge of Innovation and Research, Johannes Bahrke. (AC)