EUREGHA endorsed the position paper issued by ECHAlliance on the potential impacts of the new coronavirus pandemic on health research proposal deadlines and active projects. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many countries and cities across Europe declared the state of emergency. Even though stakeholders are working around the clock to find innovative solutions to ensure the implementation of the projects, concerns are rising about the potential impact of this crisis on the quality of the research and future proposals.

By supporting the position paper, we call for the European Commission to provide guidance to existing projects and their potential delay’s, and further support regarding the preparation of proposals to apply for the next (and last) H2020 round of calls.

European organizations must focus on  Covid-19 response and the treatment of patients. We trust that the European Commission will take the necessary action for the current H2020 calls to be able to receive the highest quality of proposals and possibly extend the deadline.

The initiative brings to the attention of the European Institutions the need to:

1) Provide guidance on the actions in place to mitigate the impact of the new coronavirus on active projects.

2) Delay the deadlines for the currently open calls for proposals under the Societal Challenge 1 until at least end of May 2020 (excluding emergency calls on COVID-19).

Find the full statement here.