A number of IMI’s projects are making valuable contributions to the global effort to tackle COVID-19. The contributions include knowledge, tools and expertise, and while some come from projects in the infectious disease field, projects working in other areas, such as data management and Alzheimer’s disease, are also stepping up to the plate.

- ZAPI – knowledge and tools for a rapid response to a coronavirus outbreak - updated 23/07
- EHDEN – harmonising clinical data to facilitate reuse and advance research - updated 23/07 & 16/10
- EHDEN, ConcePTION and ADVANCE - helping the EMA gather real-world data on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines - new on 30/07
- COMBACTE – access to a clinical trial network specialised in infectious disease studies
- ELF/ESCulab – fast track assessment for COVID proposals - new on 23/07
- RADAR-CNS uses wearable tech and mobile devices to assess impact of COVID-19 lockdowns - new on 16/10
- SOPHIA highlights experience of people with obesity during COVID-19 pandemic - new on 16/10
- HARMONY – COVID-19 data initiative
- AETIONOMY & PHAGO – tools for a new COVID-19 knowledge space
- eTRIKS – standards starter pack
- DO>IT – informed consent forms for clinical research
- EUPATI – reliable resources for patients - new on 23/07
- c4c – resources on COVID-19 for children and families
This article is updated whenever we get new information on our projects' work relating to COVID-19. Details of changes made are listed here.
ZAPI – knowledge and tools for a rapid response to a coronavirus outbreak
Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases (i.e. diseases that are transmitted between animals and humans) are the focus of the ZAPI project. Launched in 2015, ZAPI brings together some of the world’s top virologists with the goal of delivering a platform and technologies to facilitate a rapid response to disease outbreaks. One of the diseases chosen by ZAPI as a case study is MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which, like COVID-19, is caused by a coronavirus.
The surfaces of both viruses feature ‘spike proteins’ which help the virus to break into cells and infect them. ZAPI developed a number of antibodies that block the MERS spike proteins; tests in animals showed that these could be effective as treatments for MERS. The team also drew on a MERS spike protein to create a vaccine; again, tests in animals showed that it appears to be effective.
ZAPI has also advanced the development of a biomanufacturing platform that means production of vaccines or therapeutic antibodies can be rapidly scaled up. Finally, they have compiled a master file to facilitate the fast-track regulatory approval of vaccines and therapeutics in emergency situations. This has been shared with regulatory and other authorities.
Studies suggest that ZAPI’s results on MERS antibodies could be useful in the hunt for treatments for COVID-19. This work is being taken forward in the MANCO project, which is funded by the European Commission under its emergency coronavirus Call. MANCO will carry out further preclinical work on the antibodies, e.g. studying their safety and efficacy, and hopefully advance one antibody into a Phase 1 clinical trial. In addition, work on optimized SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is also expected to be carried out in one of IMI’s COVID projects, CARE, which includes a number of pharmaceutical companies and will be formally launched soon.
Find out more
- IMI news article “This is like a real-life experiment for us”
- ZAPI factsheet
- ZAPI website
- MANCO factsheet on CORDIS
EHDEN – harmonising clinical data to facilitate reuse and advance research
In April 2020, EHDEN launched a data harmonisation Call for organisations with patient data relating to COVID-19. Harmonising patient data (while preserving patients’ privacy) will make it easier to aggregate and jointly analyse data from different sources, something that is essential if we are to stop the outbreak and save lives. EHDEN received 75 applications; after review, 25 data partners in 10 countries were selected. Between them, the partners have data from 1 million SARS-COV-2-tested patients; 228 000 of whom tested positive. EHDEN is now harmonising the data to the OMOP Common Data Model so that meaningful insights and evidence can be generated in the coming months that will ultimately improve patient care.
Elsewhere, EHDEN partners were also active in the COVID-19 ‘study-a-thon’ hosted by the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) community. The virtual event drew on diverse data from 37 healthcare databases, some of which included COVID-19 data. This showed that standardising data can facilitate fast analysis and so support evidence-based decision-making. So far, the study-a-thon has resulted in a number of papers, including one in Nature Communications which paints a detailed picture of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in a number of countries.
Find out more
- IMI news article ‘Got COVID-19 patient data? Want to collaborate? IMI’s EHDEN project can help you standardise it.’
- COVID-19 Rapid Collaboration Call
- EHDEN summary of Call outcomes
- COVID-19 study-a-thon
- EHDEN press release and Nature Communications paper on the deep phenotyping of COVID-19 patients
EHDEN, ConcePTION and ADVANCE - helping the EMA gather real-world data on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines
The EHDEN and ConcePTION projects plus the ADVANCE/VAC4EU initiative will help the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gather real world data on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments once they are approved and being used in day-to-day clinical practice.
EHDEN is already working with 25 data partners across Europe, to help them map COVID-19 data to a common data model. Now, it is set to collaborate with the EMA on the creation of a framework for multicentre cohort studies on the use of medicines in COVID-19 patients.
ConcePTION will collaborate with the EMA on a project that will collect data on the impact of COVID-19 in pregnancy and follow up the baby to monitor long-term outcomes in order to guide decision-making about vaccine indications, vaccination policies and treatment options for COVID-19 in pregnant women.
The international association VAC4EU (Vaccine Monitoring Collaboration for Europe) is set to work with the EMA to prepare for the monitoring of the benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccines in Europe. VAC4EU was born out of IMI’s ADVANCE project, which drew on lessons learnt from the 2009 swine flu pandemic to create an ecosystem for monitoring vaccine benefits and risks.
The outcomes of the projects will feed into the work of EMA’s COVID-19 EMA pandemic Task Force (COVID-ETF) and EMA’s scientific committees, to ensure that the evidence is translated into scientific opinions on the optimal use of the medicines and vaccines concerned.
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COMBACTE – access to a clinical trial network specialised in infectious disease studies
IMI’s COMBACTE projects have set up a pan-European network of 975 hospitals and 800 laboratories for clinical studies and trials on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Now, scientists are turning to the networks to identify sites for clinical trials of potential COVID-19 treatments.
Find out more
- COMBACTE news item 'COMBACTE supports COVID-19 project RECOVER'
- COMBACTE website
ELF/ESCulab – fast track assessment for COVID proposals
The European Lead Factory combines a large compound collection and high throughput screening centre that scientists can access to advance their own research projects. Early on in the COVID-19 outbreak, the ELF team decided to fast-track screening proposals relating to the coronavirus. In July, the project announced that it had selected its first proposal, which aims to identify small molecules that could stop the virus from getting into human cells.
Find out more
RADAR-CNS uses wearable tech and mobile devices to assess impact of COVID-19 lockdowns
IMI’s RADAR-CNS project is using wearable devices and mobile phones to monitor people with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and major depressive disorder. The hope is that by gathering data continuously via these devices, relapses in a patient’s condition could be predicted or even avoided. As countries across Europe shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, RADAR-CNS was able to use its systems to assess how people’s behaviour changed during and after lockdown. While mobility markers fell, virtual sociability rose, with participants spending more time active on their phones and using social media apps. Participants also had a lower heart rate, went to bed later, and slept more. ‘This ability to monitor response to interventions, in near real time, will be particularly important in understanding behavior as social distancing measures are relaxed as part of any COVID-19 exit strategy,’ the researchers note.
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SOPHIA highlights experience of people with obesity during COVID-19 pandemic
Obesity has been identified as a risk factor for COVID-19 disease, but how do people living with obesity feel about the pandemic? IMI’s SOPHIA project aims to understand who is at greatest risk of health problems associated with obesity. The team interviewed 23 people undergoing diverse obesity treatments about their experience of living through the pandemic. Their findings, published in the journal Clinical Obesity, revealed that the pandemic affected both diets and physical activity. It also impacted on people’s psychosocial wellbeing, as people worried about what would happen if they caught the disease. At the same time, some patients were not aware of the link between obesity and COVID-19. Looking to the future, the researchers call for more research into the links between obesity and COVID-19, and note that this should be communicated in a way that does not stigmatise people with obesity.
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HARMONY – COVID-19 data initiative
HARMONY is a big data focused on blood cancers. Now, they have launched an open call for data partners to join the HARMONY COVID-19 Data Platform. Data integrated in the platform will be used for internal HARMONY projects addressing the impacts of COVID-19 on the treatment of blood cancers; and for external projects on COVID-19.
Find out more
- HARMONY news item 'HARMONY responses to global health threat due to COVID-19'
- HARMONY website
AETIONOMY & PHAGO – tools for a new COVID-19 knowledge space
IMI’s AETIONOMY and PHAGO projects focus on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, but that doesn’t mean their outputs aren’t relevant for COVID-19 research. Now a group of institutions, including AETIONOMY coordinator Fraunhofer SCAI, has included tools developed by the projects in the newly-launched COVID-19 Knowledge Space.
The Knowledge Space helps researchers to navigate the rapidly-growing volume of publications and data on COVID-19 and mine them for novel insights on the disease. It includes the AETIONOMY project’s SCAIView information retrieval system, which allows for semantic searches in large text collections by combining free text searches with the ontological representations of entities. It also includes the PHAGO project’s Biomedical Knowledge Miner (BiK>Mi), which provides tools to access and validate knowledge encompassing all of the latest information pertaining to COVID-19.
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eTRIKS – standards starter pack
Data standards are vital tools in data management, as they make it easier to load data into knowledge management platforms and compare it to other datasets that have applied the same standards. IMI’s eTRIKS project created a ‘standards starter pack’ to raise awareness of, and provide guidance on, data standards in clinical, genomic and translational data management. The starter pack is referenced in the European Commission’s open access guidelines for projects working on COVID-19 and related topics.
Find out more
- eTRIKS Standards Starter Pack
- eTRIKS factsheet
- European Commission’s open access guidelines for projects working on COVID-19
DO>IT – informed consent forms for clinical research
Clinical research participants have to sign an informed consent form (ICF). IMI’s DO>IT project has developed templates and guidance on how to prepare informed consent forms that enable the use of study participants’ health data and biosamples while respecting their rights as data subjects. The templates are referenced in the European Commission’s open access guidelines for projects working on COVID-19 and related topics.
Find out more
- The DO>IT ICF material can be downloaded from the project’s results page on CORDIS
- DO>IT website
- European Commission’s open access guidelines for projects working on COVID-19
EUPATI – reliable resources for patients
EUPATI has compiled a list of content and resources that provide reliable information on COVID-19 and other topics relating to medicines research and development and patient education.
Find out more
c4c – resources on COVID-19 for children and families
c4c is one of IMI’s projects in the paediatric field, and now the team has compiled a set of trustworthy resources on the coronavirus for children and families. The resources come in a range of languages and formats and target different age ranges.
Find out more
- c4c news item on the resources
- Resources for children and young people
- Resources for parents and families
Article history
This article was initially published on 6 May 2020.
Update of 23 July 2020: Addition of sections on European Lead Factory and EUPATI. Updates to sections on EHDEN and ZAPI.
Update of 30 July 2020: Addition of section on EHDEN, ConcePTION and ADVANCE.
Update of 16 October 2020: Addition of sections on RADAR-CNS and SOPHIA. Update to section on EHDEN.