Tackling Covid-19 : the contribution of EU FP funding.
Date: 2022-10-28
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: EU financing, coronavirus disease, innovation, investment, research and development

Tackling Covid-19 
The contribution of EU FP Funding 

March, 2022 

Only 26 months have passed since the end of 2019, when the WHO Country Office in China picked up the first 
media reports of “a viral pneumonia” and only 24 months since the genetic sequence of the virus was publicly 
shared. 

Researchers  accumulated  knowledge  about  the  virus  and  the  disease  at  an  unprecedented  pace, 
developed vaccines, found cures, and advised on containments measures. Their contribution to tackling 
the pandemic builds on advances made by researchers over a period of several decades. These advances were 
possible  because  of  investments  in  research  and  innovation  made  by  several  research  funders,  including  the 
European Union. 

An analysis1 of academic publications of the last two years shows that the EU is the third most frequently 
acknowledged  funding  source  for  COVID-19  related  research,  after  the  US  Department  of  Health  and 
Human Services and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. 

EU supported 3,000 papers on COVID-19 research 

The previous two EU research funding programmes - the 7th Framework Programmes for Research, and Horizon 
2020  -  supported  around  3,000  papers  on  COVID-19  research.  The  Health  Programme,  the  European 
Research  Council  (ERC),  Marie  Skłodowska  Curie  Actions  (MSCA)  are  the  programme  parts  that 
contributed the most. Around 80% of the papers identified were supported by these programmes. 

The publications come from several research disciplines: the fields with most publications are virology, cell 
biology,  genetics,  and  biochemistry.  Other  noticeable  areas  are  environmental  (health)  areas,  zoology,  and 
nanotechnology. 

1 Find out more on the report: Meeting the pandemic challenges Contribution of EU R&I funding to COVID-19 related research 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
Examples of instrumental EU-funded research for tackling the pandemic 

The development 
of the first 
diagnostic tool, 
published almost 
immediately after 
the release of the 
SARS-CoV-2 virus 
genome 

The findings of 
epidemiological 
studies used by 
WHO in clinical 
guidelines and other 
guidance 
documents 

The seminal role 
played by EU 
funding in tacking 
previous 
coronavirus 
outbreaks, in 
particular MERS-CoV 

The report also presents findings from previous analysis, showing that: 

  The EU contributed a third of the funding for the development of the Chadox technology on 

which the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is based (ranking first among listed funders) 

  The EU research funding programmes significantly supported the early stages of the mRNA 
vaccine research of Professor Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech. The report identified 10 grants from 
FP6,  FP7  and  Horizon  2020  totalling  about  €10.7  m.  They  include  a  €600  000  grant  from  the  EUs 
programme FP6, a €4.5 m grant to the startup BioNTech (that brought the Pfizer vaccine to market), from 
the Health Programme and an ERC Advanced Grant of €2.5 m from H2020. 

Versatile methodology 

The analysis uses openly available datasets such as publications from EU-funded projects. They were linked to a 
dataset of publications on Covid-19 and related viruses. The objective was to analyse the main characteristics of 
EU-funded  publications  related  to  Covid-19  but  also  to  identify  notable  discoveries  to  which  EU  funding  has 
contributed. 

The full report documents the early achievements of the EU research funding in addressing the pandemic. It shows 
that, despite its limitations, the methodological approach chosen (linking openly available datasets)  is 
versatile and relatively adaptable to other topics.  

Find out more on the report: 

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Mugabushaka, A., Meeting the pandemic 
challenges:  Contribution  of  EU  R&I  funding  to  COVID-19  related  research,  Publications  Office,  2021, 
https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/616617 

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