Spanish science is developing multiple projects to alleviate the health emergency caused by COVID-19. Research centers and innovative companies throughout Spain have received public funding and private donations to carry out R&D&I projects on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes.

Science is trying to provide a comprehensive response to COVID-19 from different approaches. In the field of research, the following stand out: trials and programs to learn about the virus, research on the immune response, studies on the biology and behavior of the virus, the search for possible drugs, the stratification of patients according to the prognosis of the disease and the search for new public health solutions to improve control of the pandemic. On the other hand, business projects that develop products aimed at preventing and alleviating COVID-19 have also been encouraged.

In 2020, the CSIC launched an Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform (ITP) called Salud Global/Global Health, in which more than 330 research groups from different specialties, from biotechnology and nanotechnology to demography and artificial intelligence, collaborate to address the challenges posed by the coronavirus epidemic from a scientific point of view, with the aim of proposing solutions in the short, medium and, above all, long term.

One of the keys to this Global Health ITP is to have a global vision that makes it possible to link all aspects of the pandemic: origin, prevention, disease, containment measures, treatment, social impact and, lastly, the need to communicate with society. In this sense, the platform has prepared the report Una visión global de la pandemia COVID-19: qué sabemos y qué estamos investigando desde el CSIC.

One of the platform's initiatives was the creation of the Colección Especial COVID-19 in the institutional repository DIGITAL.CSIC. This special collection gathers in open access the main CSIC research results directly associated with the study of COVID-19 and the study of coronaviruses in general as a contribution to a better and more extensive knowledge of these diseases. It also includes results of research projects recently launched to find relationships with other diseases and possible drugs to fight against COVID-19.

The collection brings together a wide variety of types of research results and formats. In addition, there are several portals that aggregate and disseminate free of charge the latest research from the international scientific community on COVID-19, e.g. NIH Covid-19 Research and OpenAIRE COVID-19 Gateway.

DIGITAL.CSIC organizes, preserves and disseminates CSIC research results in open access. The COVID-19 special collection is constantly updated, and currently contains more than 820 items.