Minister of Health Ernst Kuipers is making over 32 million euros extra available for a multi-year research program into post-covid and an expertise network.
The expertise network and research program fall under the program ‘Research and knowledge sharing post-covid’, for which the minister is now making an extra 32.25 million available in the period 2023 to 2026. The aim of this is to offer patients with post-covid more prospects for the future, according to the ministry. from VWS.
Expertise network and research
Through the multi-year research program, VWS wants to learn more about persistent complaints after a covid infection. The expertise network must ensure that effective treatments reach patients and healthcare professionals quickly. Kuipers has asked ZonMw to set up the center of expertise and to find out what ‘additional research is needed to shape the long-term research programme’.
In a letter to the House of Representatives, Kuipers writes that VWS ‘continues to fund various studies for an amount of more than 14 million euros’. 10 million of this was already for research into the diagnosis, treatment and organization of post-covid care via ZonMw.
Bridging period
The Long COVID Foundation, not involved in the minister’s plan for an expertise network and multi-year research programme, reports: ‘It is very important that this money is made available’. But the foundation expects it could take up to a year before the government money actually reaches the researchers. The foundation says it can bridge that period by quickly starting up a research consortium of collaborating UMCs.
Infrastructure
The foundation recently received a donation of 1 million euros from the Zorg na Werk in Coronazorg (ZWiC) foundation. Earlier, Ellen Bark, chair of the Long COVID Foundation, said in the radio program Nieuws&Co that she had asked the UMCs to submit research ideas. The applicant will hear within eight weeks whether the request has been granted.
The foundation wants to achieve that the infrastructure for research and collaboration is there so that ‘when the larger government money comes, it can be used more effectively’. According to co-founder Annelies Bos, gynecologist and lung covid patient herself, ‘it is now a logical step to accelerate and to arrive at a joint approach in the field of research between the Ministry of VWS and our foundation.’
