European Commission unveils COVID global research and innovation collaboration portal

This was announced by Commissioner Mariya Gabriel at the Research and Innovation Days 2021

During a short plenary session at the Research and Innovation Days 2021 on 23 June, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel announced the launch of a Coronavirus global research and innovation collaboration portal.

This news was shared at the “COVID-19: lessons learnt, preparedness, and resilience” session which explored the outbreak of the pandemic. Director of People Directorate within DG Research and Innovation Irene Norstedt spoke to the Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Peter Piot and Commissioner Gabriel, asking what they have learnt from the past 18 months.

A global crisis requires a global response

Commissioner Gabriel highlighted the three major lessons that have been learnt from the response to the pandemic: coordination, anticipation, and strategic investment. Taking this further, she noted that research and innovation have the power to save lives as the creation of COVID vaccines would not be possible without them.

Nevertheless, Piot stressed that the pandemic is still far from over as there are new variants and many nations that do not have access to vaccines. Piot further emphasised that as long as this issue is not resolved in all countries, it will not be resolved anywhere. Expanding on this, he explained that if the virus continues to circulate in certain countries that do not have access to COVID vaccines, there will be an import of cases and a constant breeding ground for new variants.

Keeping this in mind, Commissioner Gabriel shared that as this is a global crisis, its answers must also be global. In other words, nations all over the world must work together, share information, and benefit from each other’s knowledge.

Now, they will be able to do so as Commissioner Gabriel revealed the launch of a Coronavirus global research and innovation collaboration portal. This, according to her, will act as proof that the crisis can be tackled if nations coordinate and work together.