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Last update: 02/12/2020
The health crisis has prompted initiatives and projects in various fields to focus efforts on the same goal: finding solutions that will soften the blow of covid-19. Santander is supporting this fight by committing some EUR 20 million to Santander Universities to tackle the coronavirus.
This mission has given rise to the Supera Covid-19 (“Overcome Covid-19”) fund, through which we are allocating EUR 8.5 million to projects run by several universities, with support from Crue Universidades Españolas and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The remaining EUR 11.5 million Santander Universities has mobilised earmarks EUR 8.5 million for university projects in Spain and EUR 3 million in scholarships for students affected by covid-19.
The Supera Covid-19 fund received 700 applications, which were assessed by 323 experts from more than 50 Spanish universities, institutes and research centres. Submissions focused on three lines of action.
- Covid-19 research: 35 projects aimed at creating biosystems to catch coronavirus early, detecting and cataloguing the viral load in waste water, diagnosing groups of individuals with or without symptoms quickly and running clinical vaccine studies and trials were given EUR 5 million from the fund.
- Social impact and returns: The Supera Covid-19 fund allocated some EUR 1 million to 12 pandemic relief projects for various social groups. As women are likely to suffer the most severe social and economic hardship caused by the pandemic, it has paid close attention to gender-related causes, such as women employment in tourism and caring for the elderly and dependants.
- Cutting-edge technology in Spanish universities: The fund has put EUR 2.5 million towards the purchase of some 5,000 computers and 15,000 Internet solutions and webcams. As a result, university students could continue their studies remotely. Universities have also received support for remote teaching apparatuses.
Various university vice-chancellors elaborate on the purpose of the Supera Covid-19 fund and the three main lines of action for projects.
They are Rafael Garesse (vice-chancellor of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and president of Crue R+D+i), Santiago Garcia-Granda (president of Crue - Sustainability and vice-chancellor of the Universidad de Oviedo), Eva Alcón (Equality Policies officer at Crue and vice-chancellor of the Universitat Jaume I) and Juan Gómez Ortega (president of Crue-ICT and vice-chancellor of the Universidad de Jaén).
