COVID-19 Programme

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a considerable need for knowledge in the area of medicine and healthcare, and about the societal consequences of the corona measures. With the COVID-19 programme of ZonMw, we are creating impact with COVID-19 research from knowledge partners to make a contribution to controlling the coronavirus. We do this by working together with various national and international knowledge partners.

The COVID-19 programme has 3 core objectives:

• Contribute to the control of the corona pandemic
• Prevent negative effects of measures
• Generate new knowledge about the control of epidemics and pandemics

At ZonMw, we distinguish 3 different focus areas that COVID-19 research programmes can contribute to. All COVID-19 projects align with one of these focus areas.

1. Treatment, diagnosis and vaccination

In this focus area, we identify, fund and create impact with COVID-19 research into new or existing diagnostics, vaccines and therapies, and with research into how these work. Examples are: gaining insights into the building up of immunity after vaccination, predictive parameters for disease progression, and personalised treatment.

2. Care, prevention and transmission

This category includes studies into the organisation of healthcare, care and prevention for vulnerable citizens, and palliative care. In addition, this focus area contains research into infection, transmission (spread) and epidemiology of COVID-19. This category includes long COVID, recuperative care, aftercare and the impact of deferred care, as equally the impact of behaviour and changes in behaviour on  transmission and measures.

3. Societal dynamics

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lot of influence on society and has (had) consequences for society. In this focus area, we fund programmes about the effects of the coronavirus crisis and the measures on society, and we create impact with the findings that emerge from these studies. What are the societal consequences of the coronavirus crisis? Which social and economic problems have been laid bare by the crisis or have arisen due to it? But also: which positive effects has the crisis had? What can we learn from the crisis for the future?

Below you can read about the moment from which ZonMw and its knowledge partners identified a trend, through to the funding of projects and the impact and outcomes achieved with the research data. Many projects continue to run for several years, but interim results are often already available.

All projects made FAIR

Researchers who apply for funding from ZonMw will be requested to manage their research data, make it suitable for use and share it. By doing this, they will contribute to future and innovative research. All data from the COVID-19 projects are made FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) and can be found on the data portal www.health-ri.nl.

Although the programme initially focused on the Dutch situation, the international character of the coronavirus crisis and the global effects of the measures against it require a broader, global approach.
ZonMw continuously aligns with GloPID-R, an international network of research funding bodies with a focus on infectious outbreaks, and our projects are included in the COVID-19 Research Project Tracker by UKCDR & GloPID-R | UKCDR..

More information

• Research into the coronavirus and COVID-19
• Worldwide database of all ongoing COVID-19 studies UKCDR funding landscape

The COVID-19 Programme encompasses different focus areas and various subprogrammes. For each assessment round, a committee is put together from appointed committee members to assess the grant proposals.