FAIR and open data sharing in support to European preparedness for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases (RIA)

As first emergency funding under Horizon Europe the European Commission is mobilising €123 million from Horizon Europe for urgent research into coronavirus variants. With this funding the Commission fuels four new emergency actions. On this page we provide information about the ‘FAIR and open data sharing in support to European preparedness for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases (RIA)’ action. For further information, download our Infosheet (link below).

Call Information

FAIR and open data sharing in support to European preparedness for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases (RIA) aims to enable researchers, health care professionals and society at large to share, access, analyse, link and process research data and other research digital objects across disciplines and national borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Subsidy: €12M

Funding rate: 100%

Deadline: 6 May 2021

Duration: No limit; up to 4 years is recommended.

Total budget: €12M

Consortium: At least three legal entities established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Scope: Proposals should facilitate and accelerate the access to, and the linking of data and metadata on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, including through the European COVID-19 Data Portal, the Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory (VEO) and other relevant initiatives, with the emphasis on identifying and tracking of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and creating appropriate links with serology and other host data. The scope of the initiative should further expand to other relevant infectious diseases, and incorporate epidemiological, clinical (including Real World Data), and socio-economic data, spanning from molecular biology to other disciplines, including Social Sciences and Humanities.

(For complete information on the scope of this call, view the infosheet below)

Expected Outcomes: 

• European researchers and public health actors fighting the spread of infectious diseases, e.g. COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases are able to store, share, access, analyse, process and cite research and clinical data and other research digital objects across disciplines and national borders and to collaborate with global partners;
• Federation of viral and human infectious disease data from national and international centres enables pan-European and global sharing and combination of research and clinical data, thereby catalysing and accelerating research advances to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future outbreaks;
• Development of digital tools and data analytics for pandemic and outbreak preparedness, including tracking genomic variations of SARS-CoV-2, linking genomic and clinical data to support timely identification of variants of concern, and subsequent rapid characterisation of such strains to inform public health action;
• Linking of FAIR data and metadata on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, on other related viruses and diseases, and on socio-economic consequences, across research fields, from omics, clinical, and epidemiological research, to Social Sciences and Humanities accelerate infectious disease research, surveillance and outbreak investigation;
• Contribute to the Horizon Europe European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Partnership and to the development of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

Expected Impact: 

Proposals should set out a credible pathway to contributing to one or several of the following impacts:

• Transforming the way researchers as well as relevant actors in the public and private sectors create, share and exploit research outputs (data, publications, protocols, methodologies, software, code, etc.) Within and across research disciplines, and with the public health sector, leading to improved timeliness, better quality, more innovation, higher productivity of research and a better integration between research outputs and public health policy;
• Seamless access to and management of increasing volumes of research data following fair principles (and that are as open as possible, as closed as necessary) and other research outputs stimulating the development and uptake of a wide range of new innovative and value-added services from public and commercial providers;
• Improving trust in science through increased fairness, openness and quality of scientific research in europe, supported by more meaningful monitoring and better facilitators for reproducibility, validation and re-use of research results, and by improving pathways for the communication of science to the public.

For complete information on this call, download our infosheet: HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EMERGENCY-01 FAIR and open data sharing

View more EC Horizon COVID-19 Emergency Grant Calls

Visit the EC call webpage