At today´s CoVetLab meeting in Uppsala the decision was taken about which joint research projects to be approved.
 
There were in total six proposals evaluated this year. In general the quality of all proposals was very high. Some considerations we had to discuss were how many times projects with similar approaches or constellations could be approved. Even if there is no general rule we agreed that if a project or topic is of great interest similar projects can be approved more than once. After being approved twice there should be extraordinary reasons to be approved a third time. If it is a topic of great concern it should be possible to find external funding, which is something we encourage those who did not get funded this year to do.
 
The approved projects are the following ones. Please note that there are some modifications, which mainly are because of lack of enough financial resources to add to the projects.

• Estimation of needed resources for African Swine Fever epidemics in DK, SE, FR and BE – Modifications: SVA will contribute 10 000 Euros, CODA-Cerva has to confirm their contribution.
• Optimization of the detection and characterization of porcine coronaviruses including PEDV – no modifications.
• Subtyping of Fish-pathogenic bacteria, a new possibility by Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight MALDI-TOF, mass spectrometry – Modifications: SVA will contribute 10 000 Euros, DTU chose not to participate. We ask the project to try to include another partner, a suggestion is to ask CEFAS in GB (if you need a contact, please ask Kath Webster, who might be able to help).
• Hepatitis E virus genotype 3 and genotype 4 zoonoses from swine reservoirs – Modifications: Anses will contribute 10 000 Euros, SVA will only participate by participation at project meetings (contribution 3000 Euros).

 
All contributions from external partners should be at their own expense.
 
We ask the project leaders to inform the other participants in the projects about the outcome.
 
Congratulations to the approved projects!
 
Best regards,
Karin Artursson