kENUP Foundation this morning has presented €100,000 donation into Malta’s COVID-19 R&D Fund. The Fund is managed jointly by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and Malta Enterprise with the support of the Ministry for Finance and Financial Services, and the Ministry for the Economy, Investment & Small Businesses. This investment will support further the development of cutting-edge research and innovation in the fight against this pandemic, through the search of novel diagnostics, treatments, prophylactics or health policy solutions.
kENUP, a Malta-based not-for-profit global partnership in innovation, promotes research-based innovation for Europe with public and societal benefit. Six years on from its inception, kENUP, having established itself in novel Innovation financing tools, particularly in the Health sector, wants to give back to the community which helped it start off, in the hope that this will spawn ground-breaking products and initiatives in R&D in Malta.
Holm Keller, Chairman of kENUP Foundation said “We are very grateful to the Maltese Government for the initial support in the setting up of the Foundation in the Republic of Malta. kENUP Foundation is supporting the provision of financing for companies engaged in the development of innovative products aimed at fighting COVID-19. We are therefore very happy to also contribute to the Maltese COVID-19 R&D Fund and to support projects designed to protect the Maltese people and beyond.”
kENUP has a specific programme for COVID-19, covidX, which introduces companies engaged in the development of innovative products aimed at fighting COVID-19 to public promotional banks, as well as to commercial and impact investors. Thus, kENUP promotes the provision of non-dilutive venture loans to companies residing in the EU, and not yet invested in by major pharmaceutical companies. The focus is on European projects that develop interventions to prevent or cure COVID-19 within the next six months.
“With this significant donation, kENUP is giving the Malta Council for Science and Technology its appreciated support by boosting the Euro 5.3 Million COVID-19 R&D Fund set up using central government funding earlier this year”, said Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Executive Chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology.
In his keynote speech, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services and Digital Economy Hon. Clayton Bartolo said that Malta is not a newcomer for kENUP initiatives. “I perfectly know that years ago, MCST envisioned that kENUP could truly bring something new and big to Malta’s ailing research and innovation sector. Along the years, kENUP has also found this government’s help in addressing legal issues allowing for a novel concept in online tertiary education which ultimatley led to this setting up of EDU, also in Malta.”
The Parliamentary Secretary also highlighted that six years from its inception, kENUP has solidly established itself globally in innovation support particularly in the health sector. “Through this donation our country will strengthen its cause for more investment in Research & Development,” remarked the Parliamentary Secretary Clayton Bartolo.
The COVID-19 R&D fund will see €5.3M funnelled into developing innovative and improved scientific and technological approaches to the challenges raised by COVID-19 and future pandemics. The Fund covers Fundamental research, industrial and experimental development. Further information can be found at https://mcst.gov.mt/ri-programmes/covid-19-rd-fund/ or https://covid19.maltaenterprise.com/covid-19-rd-fund/.
The video of the event can be found at www.kenup.eu/event
Press contacts:
kENUP covidX Programme: Nadine Castillo tel: +356 99452436
MCST COVID-19 R&D fund: Giselle Calleja tel: +356 2360 2173
This article was last updated on: August 5, 2020