Project accepted for “Research 4 COVID-19” funding

FCT announced the results of the call “RESEARCH 4 COVID-19,” which is a national extra funding of 1.8M€ to answer to the COVID-19 pandemic, recently created in collaboration with the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB).

The proposals submitted by ITI researchers for this call had been announced before at https://iti.larsys.pt/media/research-4-covid-19-proposals/.

Of those, one was approved for funding, which was “AppCovidMadeira” with a budget of circa 30K€. This project’s coordinator is Bruna Gouveia (ITI/LARSyS) that will count on the participation of ITI researchers Élvio Gouveia, Frederica Gonçalves, Pedro Campos, and Nuno Nunes that are part of the team of 13 elements.

“AppCovidMadeira” aims to develop an Android/iOS application as a means of facilitating communication and monitoring of patients by health authorities. It will be developed by ITI/LARSyS members in partnership with the Institute of Health Administration, IP-RAM; RAM Health Service; Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva; IST; Faculty of Human Motricity and Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon.

The project will allow having streamlined communication and the monitorization of COVID-19 patients; grant access to more information about patients in real-time, regarding symptoms, vital signs, and psychological status; development of a database with longitudinal information, with a view to characterizing and prospecting the disease; activity plans for motor and cognitive stimulation; and providing an additional communication resource with specific recommendations.

Overall, FCT received 302 applications, of which 284 were admitted for evaluation. The Evaluation Committee proposed 66 projects for funding, distributed as follows: 24 projects (36% of the total) for diagnosis, 11 projects (17%) for clinical and epidemiological studies, 14 projects (21%) for prevention, 6 projects (9%) for therapy and 11 projects (17%) in other areas. The list of supported projects can be found here.

In the media

Newspaper article published in Diário de Notícias da Madeira on April 23 – https://www.dnoticias.pt/impressa/hemeroteca/diario-de-noticias/appcovidmadeira-recebe-financiamento-da-fct-DB6146588.