12 million SEK to Clinical Studies Sweden to support COVID-19 studies

The six regional nodes within Clinical Studies Sweden will each receive a grant of 2 million SEK, or 12 million SEK in total, to strengthen their ability to support clinical studies linked to COVID-19.

The Swedish Research Council has been mandated by the Government to temporarily reinforce the activities within Clinical Studies Sweden to increase the opportunities for clinical researchers in Sweden to conduct clinical studies linked to the disease COVID-19.

The grants to the six regional nodes are part of the increased government funding of 100 million SEK that the Swedish Research Council, in collaboration with Vinnova, shall allocate to research and innovation that can contribute to stopping the spread of COVID-19 and preventing future pandemic outbreaks. The Swedish Research Council and Vinnova regard the investment in Clinical Studies Sweden as an important joint prioritisation.

Clinical Studies Sweden is a collaboration between Sweden’s six healthcare regions via regional nodes, funded and supported by the Swedish Research Council. The collaboration aims to strengthen the prerequisites for conducting clinical studies.

The nodes within Clinical Studies Sweden offer various types of support to companies, academia and health care in their work on clinical studies. They also work with summarising data and statistics, making them accessible, and following up studies in progress.

Anne Ramnemark

“The nodes have great focus on clinical studies relating to COVID-19 right now, and this additional grant means that we can strengthen the work further. We give support to most aspects of clinical studies, which can contribute to studies starting more quickly and running more smoothly. Right now, there is also a lot of personnel who usually conduct research as part of their work who have had to step in and help in regular healthcare, which means the support from the nodes is extra important,” says Anna Ramnemark, manager of the regional node Forum North.

The decision on the grants to the nodes applies, provided the Swedish Research Council receives the government funding announced. This will be decided in the Spring Amendment Budget, to be voted on by the Riksdag on 16 June.

Following an expanded inventory of the resource needs of the nodes, the plan is to allocate further 12 million SEK to the nodes.