A PILOT project that will see extensive Covid-19 testing at University College Cork may play an important role in allowing students to return to on-campus learning.

The project, called UniCoV, will conduct large-scale analysis of testing technologies for use in surveillance of Covid-19 and prevention in higher education settings.

These will include rapid antigen testing, saliva-based PCR testing and wastewater surveillance. The findings will inform the development of early warning systems for future outbreak prevention and control. Staff and students can choose to enrol across four universities including University College Cork (UCC), who have already completed small-scale pilot studies in preparation for the project.

Testing will involve volunteers providing saliva samples twice weekly and dropping them off at on-campus collection points. These samples will undergo PCR or LAMP testing. On the same day, those volunteers will take a self-administered rapid nasal swab antigen test, and upload a photo of their result from their phone.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris TD has urged staff and students to volunteer to be part of rapid testing and other testing surveillance systems on college campuses.

He said rapid testing may be an important element of the Government’s plan for a safe return to on-site teaching, research and study.

“This pilot project will help us learn more about different types of tests, how effective they are and if they can or should be used in higher education settings.” Dr John MacSharry, Deputy Director of Graduate Entry Medicine at UCC is one of the principal investigators on the project.

Speaking to The Echo, Dr MacSharry said the project will also help with detecting asymptomatic cases.

“That’s the real aim really and it will help to get back to campus teaching. While the university is open the whole time, the big lecture style is closed because obviously, we can’t have that many people in one lecture theatre,” he said.

“This project will help that where we’ll allow people back and back to campus teaching and students will get their proper experience.”

UCC will begin a rollout of the project before all students return to campus when it is expected the numbers involved will increase. Staff and students interested can log onto www.unicov.org.