COVID-19 Research Funding Opportunities
Given the urgency to better understand COVID 19 and to potentially find a cure, there is an ever-increasing scope of COVID 19 funding opportunities available.
There are also national collaboration opportunities which can be seen towards the end of this page.
Details of individual calls can be found here. If you decide to apply, please get in contact with the LTHT Research Funding and Development Manager by email Rebecca.Savage8@nhs.net to support you in submitting your application.
COVID-19 Research Funding Opportunities
The Health Foundation
COVID-19 Research programme
Key information:
We are inviting researchers to submit proposals for research that seeks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in two distinct areas.
We’re prioritising funding for UK-focused projects that explore:
- How health and social care service delivery has changed in light of COVID-19.
- The impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities and the wider determinants of health.
We are inviting projects to apply for funding of between £100k - £200k per project for a duration of up to 12 months (including set-up time).
The COVID-19 Research Programme will remain open for applications on a rolling basis. We anticipate closing the programme for applications in September but reserve the right to close early should we receive a high volume of applications. For more information, see here
BSAC announces a $1million COVID-19 open funding call
Key information
BSAC is delighted to announce an open call for funding to support grant applications in response to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency. This is a worldwide open call for research grant applications on all aspects of COVID-19 from all countries. Support is offered for projects of up to 1-year duration.
Deadline for submissions of expressions of interest: 15 July 2020
Invitation to submit a full application: 31 July 2020
Deadline for submissions of full applications: 31 August 2020
Awards to be announced: mid-October 2020
Long-term COVID-19 effects in non-hospitalised individuals
Apply for funding for research into the causes (biological and environmental), mechanisms and management of the longer-term physical and mental health effects of COVID-19 in non-hospitalised individuals.
Up to £20 million is available to fund two or three proposals and a small number of study extensions which take a holistic approach.
Opening date; 12th November 2020
Expressions of Interest; 02nd December 2020
Closing date; 09th December 2020
Panel decision; January 2021
COVID-19 Rapid Response Rolling Call
Key information
Research to understand the disease, prevent, treat and control it will be critical for mitigating the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak. Rapid progress in addressing this epidemic will depend upon a coherent and integrated response from researchers, industry, the healthcare system and the public.
Consequently, in early February 2020 we launched a strategic Initiative encompassing two different calls i) active intervention development including vaccines and therapeutics, and ii) diagnosis and understanding of COVID-19. Over £20m was made available for this Initiative through the primary government funders of UK medical research - the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), funding awards in both calls. Details of the first six awards to be funded through this initiative can be found here.
As this is a rolling call there is currently no fixed end date to the call, we are open to applications and will aim to review complete proposals within 4 weeks of submission.
For UK-led academic, SME and wider industry research that will address a wide range of COVID-19 knowledge gaps/needs, and which will lead to a benefit in UK, potentially international, public health within 12 months.
Submission deadline - ongoing, no fixed date
For further details of how to apply, please see the MRC website.
Research to support COVID-19 response in humanitarian settings
Key information
ELRHA is launching an urgent funding call for research proposals to support the COVID-19 response in humanitarian settings.
The call aims to fund public health research that will produce robust findings that will contribute to the effectiveness of the current humanitarian response and increase the evidence base for future responses to similar infectious disease outbreaks.
To apply, please visit the ELRHA website.
European Commission LIFE - integrated projects
Key information
The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, under the LIFE programme, invites applications for its integrated projects call. This supports the implementation of large territorial scale environmental and climate plans or strategies within the EU. Integrated projects should aim towards the full implementation of the targeted plan or strategy.
Applicants are encouraged to look at their project idea and identify any element that could potentially improve the collective ability to avoid a crisis similar to COVID-19 outbreak in the future. Projects can financially support small, local initiatives.
Applications are invited from public bodies, private commercial organisations and private non-commercial organisations including NGOs located in the EU. Projects must take place in the territory of EU member states. UK-based legal persons are eligible to participate under this call.
Submission deadline: 06th October 2020
For details of the application process, please visit the LIFE integrated projects website.
NIHR COVID-19 Research Funding
PRP Recovery, Renewal, Reset: Research to inform policy responses to COVID-19 in the health and social care systems
Key information
The NIHR Policy Research Programme (NIHR PRP) invites applications for research to inform the policy response to challenges posed by COVID-19; and to capture learning arising from the pandemic. The research specification document sets out the need for research in specific topic areas to inform medium- to longer-term policy decisions for health and social care resulting from COVID-19. COVID-19 research on basic science, clinical issues, and on specific social care and health service delivery may be suitable for other NIHR and UKRI programmes. If you are unsure which route to apply to please contact: nihrcovidcall@nihr.ac.uk
Submission dates: 10th September and 22nd October 2020.
20/45 COVID-19: Recovery and Learning
Key information
The Policy Research Programme are accepting applications, and timelines and process details are are provided in their call details.
NIHR Academy are also accepting applications through their existing Fellowships Programme.
Global Effort on COVID-19 (GECO) Health Research
Key information
Global Effort on COVID-19 (GECO) Health Research is a new cross UK government funding call aiming to support applied health research that will address COVID-19 knowledge gaps. The focus is on understanding the pandemic and mitigating its health impacts in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). The call prioritises epidemiology, clinical management, infection control and health system responses.
The call is supported by: the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) through the NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The funds form part of the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment. Support will be available to address the impacts of COVID-19 in LMICs for research which has a direct and primary focus on improving health in LMIC countries.
Proposals should normally be up to £1m per award. The size of awards will vary according to the needs of each research project.
This call will be run as a series of calls - i.e. three consecutive rounds of the call will take place on a rolling basis.
Closing date: 28th September 2020
For more information, please see the NIHR Global Effort website here
Travel and subsistence funding to support LMIC engagement during the COVID-19 outbreak
Key information:
Application process - The awards will provide travel and subsistence funding to appropriately qualified public health professionals, clinicians and academics who wish to offer science and technical advice to support the immediate response to COVID-19 in low and middle-income countries.
Applicants must have a substantive position at a UK higher education institution or research organisation. They are required to ensure an appropriate duty of care, insurance, safeguarding and all other liabilities are in place and have the support of their institution for any travel, as well as appropriate institutional support in the destination country.
Applications are open until further notice, on a rolling basis. Applications should ideally be submitted at least 2 weeks before the planned travel.
Queries should be directed to ccf-nCoV@nihr.ac.uk
Opening date- 13th March 2020
Closing date - 31st December 2020
Open/Closed - Open
UKRI open call for research and innovation ideas to address Covid-19
Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Sadly, Covid-19 is still with us, and robust solutions to many problems are still needed. That said, there are some areas that are already well funded, and others where few high-quality proposals have been submitted. For this reason, for this next phase of the call, we will focus on areas that fill gaps in the Covid-19 research and innovation landscape.
We have developed a priority list of areas which we are particularly interested in seeing addressed. These will be updated periodically. It’s important that applicants also check what projects are already in progress.
Key information
Open date; 31st July
Closing date; 31st December 2020
UKRI - Get funding for ideas that address COVID-19
Key information
Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
UKRI will support excellent proposals up to 12-18 months duration which meet at least one of the following:
- new research or innovation with a clear impact pathway that has the potential (within the period of the grant) to deliver a significant contribution to the understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts.
- supports the manufacture and/or wide scale adoption of an intervention with significant potential
- gathers critical data and resources quickly for future research use
- Project length: Up to 18 months
- Closing date: none - apply at any time
- Funding: 80% of the full economic cost (fEC)
- Award range: There is no specific budget for this call. We are interested in funding research of any scale that can demonstrate it will deliver impact in the project length.
For details of how to apply, please go to the UKRI COVID-19 funding page.
UKRI - Apply to switch your existing funding to Covid-19 priority areas
Key information
UKRI has put in place the following process to allow researchers to repurpose existing UKRI standard grant to address COVID-19 research priorities.
For details of who can apply and how to apply, please go to the UKRI COVID-19 funding page.
Other national collaboration COVID-19 opportunities
UK Parliament: COVID-19 outbreak expert database
Key information
The Parliament's Knowledge Exchange Unit has created a new COVID-19 outbreak expert database to enable quick access to researchers who can provide expert insights relating to both coronavirus and the wider situation.
They are looking for anyone with expertise relating to COVID-19 or its impacts (for example, on welfare, employment, education and other key areas), who would be prepared to provide expert insights to Parliament (for example, providing insights to contribute to a Library briefing, briefing a Member of Parliament, helping respond to an enquiry).
Royal Academy of Engineering
The Royal Academy of Engineering has issued a call for contributions to the response to COVID-19, including a call for expertise on a range of technologies and issues.
For further details of how to get involved, please visit the Royal Academy of Engineering website
Royal Society: urgent call for registered reports on coronavirus
Key information
The Royal Society's journal Royal Society Open Science has announced a special call for registered report (RR) submissions that are relevant to any aspect of COVID-19 in any field, including but not limited to chemistry, biology, medicine, economics, and psychology.
RRs are a form of empirical article offered by more than 200 journals in which study proposals are peer-reviewed and pre-accepted before research is undertaken.
All registered reports at Royal Society Open Science are published open access (CC-BY) with accompanying open review and, to maximise accessibility of the call, all article processing charges for these submissions are automatically waived. To ensure that high quality protocols can be implemented as swiftly as possibly, the journal will strive to complete initial Stage 1 review within 7 days of receiving a submission.
The journal is calling for both reviewers and authors to take part in the process.
For more information, please see the Royal Society website.
IN-PART: call for COVID-19 research and projects
Key information
IN-PART have invited universities and researchers conducting research relating to combating COVID-19 to submit that research to be disseminated to their global industry network, which contains R&D teams in over 6,000 companies and the majority of the top-100 pharma and biotech firms.
If you are interested in potential research collaborations, please contact Siobhan Dennis in the Medical Sciences Division.
IP transactions with industry are promoted on IN-PART by Oxford University Innovation. Please contact Grace Dobbs if you have an ongoing project that could aid the response to COVID-19
Information on how IN-PART works with universities can be found on the IN-PART website.
You should provided only brief, non-confidential information about your research for upload onto the platform. Please note there is no guarantee that this will result in an enquiry or partnership.
