COVID-19 Information for Epilepsy Researchers

Stylized image of brain and viruses. Links to: Information for researchers regarding COVID-19 and epilepsy

The pandemic has slowed or stopped much non-COVID-19 research, while studies focused on COVID-19 have ramped up quickly. Some changes have been positive: Ethics approvals no longer take months, and researchers are increasingly willing to collaborate with one another. But the pressure to release results has led to an increase in research being released without peer review or quality assessment.

Large COVID-19 trials, such as the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial in the United Kingdom and the Healthcare Worker Exposure, Response and Outcomes (HERO) trial in the United States, have already enrolled thousands. These studies—particularly the RECOVERY trial—may provide some insights into how COVID-19 affects people with epilepsy, though they are not explicitly designed to do so.

Below we list resources and information for researchers on a variety of topics. Please contact us at covid@ilae.org if you have resources or ideas for your fellow researchers.

ILAE COVID-19 and Epilepsy Research Award

Applications are due before 31 August 2021

We are pleased to announce the 2020 winners of the ILAE COVID-19 and Epilepsy Research Award, for the best research undertaken during the COVID19 pandemic, published or in press, for COVID-19 and epilepsy.

We will offer further COVID-19 project prizes, one available per region. All are encouraged to apply, but we particularly encourage early career researchers.

To submit your research for consideration, please send your research reference (one paper only, please) and your affiliations to covid@ilae.org. Applications are due before 31 August 2021.

Working safely in the laboratory

CDC guidelines for handling specimens associated with COVID-19

Lab safety infographic

A comprehensive pandemic response plan for animal laboratory facilities (2010)

Moving forward with clinical trials

What will clinical trials look like after the pandemic? Will COVID-19 lead to a more evidence-based perspective in medicine, or an eminence-based one? A perspective from Rob Califf, professor at Duke University and former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration.

See Dr Califf's full talk

Article with excerpts from the talk

US FDA Guidance on Conduct of Clinical Trials of Medical Products During COVID-19 Pandemic:Guidance for Industry, Investigaors, and Institutional Review Boards

Healthy working from home

Psychology of successfully working from home (Anna Cox, YouTube)

Seven tips to manage mental health during the pandemic (26 March 2020, Nature)

Splendid isolation: Scientists with field work experience in remote areas share stories of social isolation and staying positive (14 May 2020, Nature)

The funding landscape for non-COVID-19 research

Funding agencies are allowing flexibility, both in terms of ongoing grants that can be propagated and of new grants

Funding & tender opportunities

Coronavirus (COVID-19): information for grant applicants and grantholders (Wellcome)

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Information for NIH Applicants and Recipients of NIH Funding

COVID-19 research

Global research on COVID-19 (World Health Organization)

The RECOVERY trial (Randomised evaluation of COVID-19 therapy)

The HERO registry (Healthcare Worker Exposure Response & Outcomes)

Research in context: Online tool tracks positive and negative citations of COVID-19 literature

Open science and the COVID-19 pandemic (Nature, 24 April 2020)

SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19

About SARS-CoV-2

SARS-CoV-2/Genomes

COVID-19 data sharing and accelerating knowledge

Statement on sharing research data related to COVID-19 (Wellcome)

Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN) – Federated AI-ready repository of COVID-19 data adherent to FAIR principles

Call to Action to the Tech Community on New Machine Readable COVID-19 Dataset - CORD National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health: a machine-readable Coronavirus literature collection available for data and text mining

SemanticScholar

NIH general information and news

COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge (Kaggle) - a series of important questions designed to inspire the community to find new insights about the COVID-19 pandemic including the natural history, transmission, and diagnostics for the virus, lessons from previous epidemiological studies, and more.

WHO – Global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) 

COVID-19 Research Articles Downloadable Database – Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library

iSearch COVID-19 Portfolio, NIH - daily updated collection of COVID-19 related articles from PubMed and pre-print servers

Open Access Data and Computational Resources to address COVID-19 (NIH)

COVID-19 repositories

SARS-COV-2 research materials BEI Resources (NIAID, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

COVID Digital Pathology Repository (NIH)

NCBI Virus, SARS-CoV-2 data hub – Search, retrieve and analyze SARS-CoV-2 GenBank data

COVID-19 clinical research data

ClinicalTrials.gov clinical trials on COVID-19

CDC:

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – COVID-19

COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index Map (Surgo Foundation)

The COVID Tracking Project – Tracking tests, cases, hospitalizations, outcomes

COVID-19 dashboard (Center for Systems Science and Engineering)

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center – Tracking tests, cases, outcomes globally and in US

COVID-19 research funding

Funding opportunities, flexibilities to applicants and strategic plans

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) – Funding opportunities

Flexibilities Available to Applicants and Recipients of Federal Financial Assistance Affected by COVID-19

NIH Guidance for NIH-funded Clinical Trials and Human Subjects Studies Affected by COVID-19

COVID-19 Funding Opportunities (Johns Hopkins University)

NIAID strategic plan for COVID-19 research

EGI call for COVID-19 research projects

ERAvsCorona action plan: short term coordinated research and innovation actions

European Research Area (ERA) corona platform – funding opportunities at European Union and national level

Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (H2020)