EPFL launches a series of projects to combat the Coronavirus crisis
© 2020 EPFL / Alain Herzog
EPFL researchers have been working for weeks to help fight the pandemic and mitigate its short- and long-term consequences. Studies are already under way on methods to stem the spread of the virus, diagnose the disease and discover a vaccine. EPFL researchers are also part of an EU initiative called PEPP-PT to develop an app that can identify people who have been in contact with a coronavirus carrier. Hackathons are yet another element of our School’s effort to combat COVID-19. For ENAC and IIE, two projects were awarded so far.
EPFL is focusing its research efforts on discoveries that can help slow the spread of COVID-19 and alleviate its effects on society. The projects range from developing a treatment or vaccine to deploying rapid responses to attenuate the crisis’s impact on people. In the past two weeks, EPFL researchers have put forth around 40 coronavirus-related project ideas.
The School has already chosen 12 such projects to receive funding. These studies were selected because they can deliver direct responses to the pandemic. “Some labs are drawing on existing research or on systems that they have already developed, while others have proposed completely new ideas that came out of an intense brainstorming process,” says Paul Sunderland, the deputy to the Vice President for Research. The research must be completed in the short- to medium-term with tangible results ideally in the next six to nine months. Each study selected for the program will be given tens of thousands of francs in additional funding. EPFL staff taking part in the projects will be given special authorization to work on the otherwise-closed campus.
Some projects bring together researchers from different EPFL schools or involve collaborations with other Swiss research institutes. Below are descriptions of the projects selected so far.
Preventing or tracking contagion
• Wastewater-based epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Switzerland. Prof. Tamar Kohn (ENAC). SARS-CoV-2 is shed in the feces of infected persons one to two weeks before cases are confirmed clinically. Using samples from five large wastewater treatment plants, which jointly cover over 700,000 people, this study will monitor the dynamics of the COVID-19 outbreak in Switzerland. The data will let policy makers quickly adapt public health mitigation strategies.
Policy and data
• COVID-19 collaborative research on housing wellbeing: Initiating a Swiss Corona Citizen Science Research Team. Prof. Vincent Kaufmann, Prof. Claudia Binder and Prof. Daniel Gatica-Perez (ENAC). In this study, citizens will be asked to participate in a survey. The aim is to come up with coping strategies for the new living and working conditions during the COVID-19 outbreak and to improve the understanding of how such crises can be better managed in the future.
An app that can tell if you’ve come into contact with the virus
The PEPP-PT – or Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing– initiative brings together 130 research organizations in eight different countries to develop a tracking app for smartphones. Installing the app will be entirely voluntary and all data will be anonymized.
The app will use Bluetooth technology to identify the people that someone who tested positive for the new coronavirus has had contact with, and then notify those people. Similar apps already exist in Singapore, South Korea and China, but they can’t be used in their current format in Europe for data privacy reasons. Development work on the app should be finished by Easter, then it will be made available for free to the general public.