The aim of the COVID-19 Data Portal is to facilitate data sharing and analysis, and to accelerate coronavirus research. An unprecedented number of scientific efforts are taking place worldwide in order to help combat the new coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19). The COVID-19 Data Portal will be the primary entry point into the functions of a wider project, the European COVID-19 Data Platform. Rapid and open sharing of data greatly accelerates research and discovery, which is essential to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Commission and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), together with EU Member States and research partners such as ELIXIR, are deploying a dedicated European COVID-19 Data Platform that will enable the rapid collection and comprehensive data sharing of available research data from different sources for the European and global research communities. This joint effort is a priority pilot to realise the objectives of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).