Swedish Research Council to fund research into COVID-19 vaccine and long COVID

100 million SEK to follow-up studies of COVID-19 vaccine

Follow-up studies of vaccine are important for increasing knowledge of factors such as effectiveness and safety. The Swedish Research Council is currently working as fast as possible to develop forms for funding major follow-up studies of COVID-19 vaccines with broad national acceptance.

“We are currently looking at how best to carry out this task, and what an upcoming call should include. One important aspect is that the studies take account of the knowledge need identified by regions, municipalities, and relevant government agencies. There is also a great need to build up a national infrastructure for the studies. This might, for example, include linking together different registers and data sources, creating a structure for sampling, and developing formats for digital patient consent,” says Madeleine Durbeej-Hjalt, Secretary General for Medicine and Health at the Swedish Research Council.

50 million SEK to research into long COVID

Many people have long-term symptoms after having had COVID-19, known as ‘long COVID’. The Swedish Research Council has been tasked to fund research into long-term symptoms after COVID-19, with 50 million SEK allocated.

“The need for research and new knowledge is great, and we are working as fast as possible to issue a call for this funding. We are in dialogue with bodies such as the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services (SBU), which is currently conducting a project on the prioritisation of research questions relating to long-term symptoms of COVID-19,” says Madeleine Durbeej-Hjalt.

You can read about the mandates in their entirety on the Government’s website:

• Mandate to prepare funding of follow-up studies of COVID-19 vaccines (in Swedish)
• Mandate to prepare funding of research studies into long COVID (in Swedish)