BRUSSELS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday announced it had earmarked 123 million euros (146 million U.S. dollars) to fund urgent research into coronavirus variants.
The fund, through Horizon Europe, the new EU research and innovation program, adds to a range of EU-funded research and innovation actions to fight the coronavirus and contributes to the Commission's overall action to prevent, mitigate and respond to the impact of coronavirus variants, the Commission said in a statement.
"We continue to mobilise all means at our disposal to fight this pandemic and the challenges presented by coronavirus variants. We must use our combined strength to be prepared for the future, starting from the early detection of the variants to the organisation and coordination of clinical trials for new vaccines and treatments, while ensuring correct data collection and sharing at all stages," said Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
The new calls for urgent research into coronavirus variants complement earlier actions to develop treatments and vaccines by organising and conducting clinical trials to advance the development of promising therapeutics and vaccines against the virus.
The Commission said the emergency calls will tackle the short to medium-term threat and simultaneously prepare for the future by enabling the EU to anticipate and better tackle future pandemics. (1 euro=1.19 U.S. dollars) Enditem
