On Thursday 16 April the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) welcomed the priority action plan drawn up by the Commission and the Member States to coordinate their actions in the field of research and innovation.
Meeting in an informal video conference on Tuesday 7 April, the competent European ministers supported the ten actions provided for in this plan (see EUROPE 12464/17), known as ERAvsCorona, and which is to be regularly updated by the Commission services and national administrations.
For the time being, there has been agreement to coordinate the various European funds allocated to research and innovation to combat Covid-19, to release new funds to support researchers and to increase existing funds for innovative companies.
The aim is to achieve "relevant results" quickly and to increase the readiness of health systems to respond to crises such as this one.
Member States and the Commission also consider it essential that research infrastructures are made accessible to European researchers, regardless of nationality, and that large clinical trials are extended across the EU as a whole.
There is also talk of establishing a European platform for the exchange of data on Covid-19 and information on coronaviruses. This platform, which would be connected to the Open Science Cloud (EOSC), would allow rapid, even real-time sharing of data and research results "to accelerate discovery".
In addition, the plan foresees the establishment of a working group on Covid-19 (see EUROPE 12464/17), a platform identifying ongoing funding initiatives and a hackathon aiming to mobilise European innovators and civil society (see EUROPE 12466/13).
These are the means that EFPIA describes as "essential enablers to accelerate the translation of scientific ideas into products and services at a time when speed is essential".
To consult the action plan: https://bit.ly/2Vc573W - and the European Research Area (ERA) Corona platform: https://bit.ly/2XF9pCH (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)