Previous COVID-19 Funding Opportunities
A list of previous COVID-19 Funding opportunities
Merck's 2020 Research Grants – call deadline 31 August 2020
Details: In 2020, Merck is offering a series of research grants to stimulate innovative research in challenging areas of future importance. Grants of 100,000 EUR - 500,000 EUR per year for up to 3 years are available in areas including pandemic preparedness and fighting new emerging viral infectious disease.
NIH: National Centre for Complementary & Integrative health, US: Notice of special interest - administrative supplements and urgent competitive revisions to NCCIH grants for natural product research on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and coronavirus disease 2019 - closing date 17 August 2020
Details: The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and the Office of Research on Women’s Health invite applications for their notice of special interest – administrative supplements and urgent competitive revisions to NCCIH grants for natural product research on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) funding opportunity.
Value: Awards are worth up to USD 150,000 each for up to one year. The project and budget periods must be within the currently approved project period for the existing parent award.
Health Foundation, GB: Developing the long-term research agenda - COVID-19 - Call deadline 13 August 2020
Details: The Health Foundation invites tenders for its developing the long-term research agenda – COVID-19 call. The tenderer will develop a UK-wide vision for a long-term research agenda in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Value: Contract is worth up to £300,000.
Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, GB - Manufacturing futures - adventurous manufacturing research - call deadline 13 August 2020
Details: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invites outline proposals for its manufacturing futures – adventurous manufacturing research call. This supports potentially transformative science and engineering research projects that have the potential to contribute to EPSRC’s vision for manufacturing research.
Value: The total budget is £3 million to fund awards worth up to £250,000 each at 80 per cent full economic cost.
IBM Corporation: Call for code global challenge – call deadline 31 July 2020
Details: IBM invites submissions for its call for code global challenge. This recognises practical and sustainable open source solutions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and climate change. Solutions must be based on one or more IBM Cloud services, such as web, mobile, data, analytics, artificial intelligence, internet of things or weather applications. The use of sponsor or affiliate application programming interfaces and open source libraries is also encouraged.
Value: Up to $200000
Call for multidisciplinary research into epidemics and pandemics in response to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 – call deadline 1 July 2020
Details: The German Research foundation (DFG | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DE) invites applications for its call for multidisciplinary research into epidemics and pandemics in response to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. This supports projects addressing the prevention, early detection, containment and investigation of the causes, impacts and management of epidemics and pandemics, taking the example of SARS-CoV-2 and other microorganisms and viruses that are pathogenic to humans.
This includes, for example, the investigation of:
- the challenges and effects of an epidemic or pandemic and of measures taken for healthcare systems;
- psychological, social and cultural factors in the emergence, spread and treatment of epidemics and pandemics and the legal and ethical implications;
- the impacts on global and regional economic development, production and value creation chains, logistics, transport and communication;
- fundamental biological and medical aspects of a pathogen and the associated symptoms, as well as therapeutic methods or preventive measures in combination with one or more of the above topic areas.
EASI - Genomics, ES: Extraordinary call for proposals for access projects related to the COVID-19 crisis - Call deadline 30 June 2020
Details: The EASI-Genomics invites proposals for its extraordinary call for access projects related to the COVID-19 crisis. This supports next-generation sequencing and other high-end genomics applications and genomic data analysis related to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Value: The total budget is €500,000.
MIT Solve: Health security and pandemics challenge – call deadline 18 June 2020
Details: Support for innovative, human-centred, technology-based solutions to COVID-19. Projects may involve technology innovations that can slow and track the spread of an emerging outbreak or solutions that focus on preventative and mitigation measures that strengthen access to affordable primary healthcare systems, enhance disease surveillance systems and improve healthcare supply chains.
Budget: USD 10,000.
Pfizer, INT: Vaccine preventable diseases - COVID-19 - Call deadline 17 June 2020
Details: Pfizer invites applications for its vaccine preventable diseases – COVID-19 competitive grant programme.
Value: Grants are generally worth between USD 50,000 and USD 250,000 each. Larger grants may be available depending on the size and scope of the programme.
European Commission: Innovative and rapid health-related approaches to respond to COVID-19 for higher level of preparedness of health systems – call deadline 11 June 2020
Details: Proposals are invited under five topics
- Repurposing of manufacturing for vital medical supplies and equipment (Innovation Action; €23 million)
- Medical technologies, Digital tools and Artificial Intelligence analytics to improve surveillance and care at high Technology Readiness Levels (Innovation Action; €56 million)
- Behavioural, social and economic impacts of the outbreak responses (Research and Innovation Action; €20 million)
- Pan-European COVID-19 cohorts (Research and Innovation Action; €20 million)
- Collaboration of existing EU and international cohorts of relevance to COVID-19 (Coordination and Support Action; €3 million)
Spencer Foundation, US: Research grants on education - COVID-19 - call deadline 8 June 2020
Details: The Spencer Foundation invites proposals for its COVID-19 related research grants on education. These support education research projects that contribute to understanding the rapid shifts in education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Value: Grants are worth up to USD 50,000 each for one to three years.
Joint European Disruptive Initiative, FR: Billion molecules against COVID-19 - step 1 and 2 - closing deadline 6 June 2020
Details: The Joint European Disruptive Initiative, under its grand challenges programme, invites applications for its billion molecules against COVID-19 call – step 1 and 2. This supports projects that improve in silico or other methods of identifying compounds with blocking interactions relevant to any SARS-CoV-2 target, by optimising the use of high performance computing and artificial intelligence, and providing experimental validation.
Value: One grant worth €250,000 is available.
Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, US: COVID-19 research grant - Call ceadline 1 June 2020
Details: The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine invites applications for its COVID-19 research grant. This supports emergency care research related to COVID-19. Research may focus on diagnostics, safety, therapeutics, disaster preparedness or other relevant topic areas.
Value: Grants are worth between USD 5,000 and USD 25,000 over one year, to cover direct costs related to the project such as laboratory and clinical research supplies, research assistant or data analyst time and travel expenses.
US Agency for International development, US: STOP spillover - call deadline 1 June 2020
Details: The US Agency for International Development invites applications for its STOP spillover call. This aims to use an evidence-based approach to develop, deploy and evaluate interventions to reduce the spillover of emerging zoonotic viruses at high-risk animal-human interfaces, and reduce amplification and spread of these threats at high-risk foci such as health care facilities.
Value: One grant worth up to USD 100 million for five years is available. There is a suggested cost share of 5 per cent of the total eligible project costs.
National Library of Medicine, US & other funders: Administrative supplements for research on Coronavirus Disease 2019 - call deadline 1 June 2020
Details: The National Library of Medicine invites applications for its notice of special interest – administrative supplements for research on coronavirus disease 2019 funding opportunity. This supports research on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim is to improve our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
Research is expected to focus on informatics and data science methods to help address the COVID-19 pandemic and should address one of the following areas of interest:
- Methods for mining clinical data that can be used to identify or predict presence of COVID-19 in biomedical phenotype data;
- Public health surveillance methods that mine genomic, viromic, health data, environmental data or data from other pertinent sources to identify spread and impact of SARS-Cov-2.
US and foreign non-profit and for-profit organisations may apply. Applicants must hold an active parent award and submit their funding request using the PA-18-591 funding opportunity.
Value: Awards are worth up to USD 75,000 each for up to one year. Ref: NOT-LM-20-010.
American Lung Association, US: COVID-19 and emerging respiratory viruses research award - call deadline 30 May 2020
Details: The American Lung Association invites applications for its COVID-19 and emerging respiratory viruses research award. This supports research focusing on emerging respiratory pathogens like SARS-CoV-2. Projects must directly be related to COVID-19 or other viral respiratory threats that may arise in the future.
Value: The award is worth up to USD 100,000 per year for up to two years
US Department of State, US: Combatting COVID-19 pandemic & proliferation threats - call deadline 29 May 2020
Details: The US Department of State, under its Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, invites applications for its call on combatting COVID-19 pandemic and proliferation threats. This aims to build export and border control and security capacity to continue to safely prevent, contain and mitigate threats and impacts posed by the rapid spread of destabilising biological and chemical threats at national borders and points of entry, including infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Value: The estimated budget is USD 15 million. A total of 20 grants are available, each worth up to USD 5m.
US Department of Defense Technology/Therapeutic Development Award for Covid-19 - call deadline 28 May 2020
Details: Proposals must be of clear scientific merit and of direct relevance to military health.
Ministry of Defence, UK: Open call for Innovation - Rapid Impact Innovation – call deadline 28 May 2020
Details: This call supports defence and security innovation projects, which have a realistic prospect of achieving an impact within a three-year time frame from the commencement of the project.
Whilst proposals may address any topic that is of relevance to the defence and security sector, the call also has the following innovation focus areas:
- COVID-19 - rapid sanitising technology
- Reduced-burden area biosurveillance
Value: £100,000-£350,000
Ministry of Defence, UK: Open Call for Innovation - Emerging Innovations – call deadline 28 May 2020
Details: This encourages proposals across a wide range of technology areas with the aim of finding new and novel opportunities for these to be exploited across defence or security.
Whilst proposals may address any topic that is of relevance to the defence and security sector, the call also has the following innovation focus areas:
- COVID-19 - rapid sanitising technology
- Reduced-burden area biosurveillance
Value: The majority of successful projects cost between £50,000 and £100,000 and last between three and 10 months.
British Academy Special research Grants: Covid-19 – call deadline 27 May 2020
Details: Researchers should think creatively about how funding could best be used, with a view to making a significant contribution to the understandings of and range of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some key areas of interest are included here - this subset of examples is not exhaustive though.
- ethical and behavioural issues raised by the pandemic;
- implications of migration on disease transmission;
- feasibility and effectiveness of policy responses aimed at preventing or containing COVID-19, including secondary impacts such as school closures, quarantine etc;
- past experience of epidemics, pandemics and quarantine;
- communication of risk to the wider public;
- behavioural studies understanding how people have been affected, both mentally and physically by living through the pandemic;
- community responses to crisis;
- access and equity to essential services, including digital communications and technologies;
- translation and analysis of information for multilingual populations;
- role of arts and culture in community building, recovery and resilience;
- strategies to combat misinformation;
- impacts on socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
Budget: up to £10,000
European Institute of Innovation & Technology, EU: Health proposal addressing the management & response to pandemics - call deadline 27 May 2020
Details: The European Institute of innovation and Technology, under EIT Health, invites proposals addressing the management and response to pandemics. These grants support research into the prevention and management of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as potential future pandemics. Projects may address one or more of the following topics:
- Hindering disease spread and prevention of outbreaks – social distancing measures, travellers' tracking and monitoring and contagiousness, confinement and hygiene management;
- Optimising screening and diagnosis – efficient testing on a permanent level to control future outbreaks, evaluation of digital biomarkers, remote triage, assessment of acquired immunity, triaging of infected persons to determine optimal treatment;
- Treating people better – secondary infections treatment, management of other diseases, remote care of the sick and vulnerable, healthcare services at elderly homes, intelligent monitoring of patients during treatment;
- Healthcare organisation's resource management, logistics and supply chains – healthcare facilities resource management, security of supply of essential medical equipment and resilience of global supply chains, shortage of medical staff;
- Data-driven initiatives – utilisation of big data, services for various applications, particularly focusing on transnational approaches for accelerated information and data sharing.
Projects may apply for innovation, campus or accelerator grants. Innovation projects aim for rapid market penetration of innovative products and services. Campus projects cover training for students, entrepreneurs, innovators, healthcare professionals and executive and citizens and patients. Accelerator projects cover bootcamp programmes and helping start-ups.
Proposals must be submitted by an EIT health core or associate partner or a linked third party.
Value: Grants cover up to 80 per cent of costs.
British Society for Rheumatology, GB: Research Funding Call - Call Deadline 25 May 2020
Details: The British Society for Reumatology invites applications for its research funding call. This supports the research career development of members with little or no previous engagement with research. Important research areas identified include health services research, and chronic pain and rare diseases, including the impact of COVID-19 on rheumatology patients.
Value: £20,000 - £40,000
NIH: National Human Genome Research Institute: Urgent competitive revisions for research on SARS-CoV-2 - call deadline 15 May 2020
Details: This supports research focusing on understanding the host response, associated disease and short- and long-term clinical outcomes of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. Genomic studies utilisting generalised approaches that take advantage of human research or model systems to study the consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection are particularly encouraged.
Value: Max $250,000
European Health and Data Evidence Network: COVID-19 Rapdi Collaboration Call - call deadline 14 May 2020
Details: In this Rapid Collaboration Call, EHDEN is calling out to European Data Partners to apply via a short COVID-19 call application template, with a rapid turnaround review process. Selection will be via a panel of acknowledged experts in this bioinformatics field, and those successful:
Receive a sub-grant from EHDEN of up to €50,000, based on evaluation of data complexity, to support the process of data harmonisation to the OMOP common data model and allied tools
Are able to engage with an EHDEN COVID-19 Taskforce made up of technical experts with skills and experience to assist with remote harmonisation of data (under the current pandemic restrictions), meaning that applicants without the resources to support this will not be considered
Will be invited to participate in COVID-19 research studies to accelerate our understanding of how to combat this pandemic and improve patient outcomes, so a main criteria for inclusion in this call is relevance and representativeness of COVID-19 data
Natural Environment Research Council, GB: COVID-19 Public Engagement Grant - call deadline 13 May 2020
Details: The Natural Environment Research Council invites proposals for its COVID-19 public engagement grant. This supports public engagement with environmental science that understands, addresses or mitigates the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Projects must support the objectives and approach in the NERC public engagement with research and innovation strategy, and must be sensitive to social distancing and other restrictions being brought in as a result of the current situation.
Activities in scope include:
- Delivery of new or adaptation of current public engagement;
- Development of existing digital public engagement assets;
- Collaborative projects, including with museums or science centres;
- Developing partnerships, including with local communities;
- Building capacity, such as through networks, training, mentoring, sharing best practice; digital engagement with potential focus on citizen science projects;
- Use of new and emerging technology, creation of digital assets and innovative use of social media.
Applicants must be based at eligible UK-based HEIs, research council institutes, and independent research organisations. Proposals may include partnerships with other researchers across academic disciplines beyond the NERC remit. Any activities must be free at point of access for public audiences.
Value: The total budget is £50,000 and grants are worth up to £10,000 each. Projects must finish by 31 March 2021.
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, NO: Call for Centralised Laboratory for measurement of immune responses elicited by SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates - call deadline 10 May 2020
Details: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations invites applications for its call for a centralised laboratory for measurement of immune responses elicited by SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates. This supports testing of immune response elicited by different vaccine in preclinical studies as well as phase one and two clinical studies in the same centralised laboratory.
Value: Not specified
AXA Research Fund: Execeptional Flash Call on mitigating risk in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic - Call Deadline 7 May 2020 (4pm Paris Time)
Details: The AXA Research Fund invites proposals for its exceptional flash call on mitigating risk in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This supports research related to the mitigation of risk after the Covid-19 pandemic or a potential second wave, particularly in lower income countries. Projects may address one of the following topics:
Protecting vulnerable populations from epidemics and catastrophes, including Covid-19;
Improving data collection and quality in health;
Understanding the effects of confinement and social distancing;
Early warning and preparedness;
Preserving the environment and health.
Mid-career researchers who received their PhD between six and ten years ago and are currently based at an academic institution, may apply. Exceptions to the time frame are made only for maternity leave. Ideally, applications should go through an institution, who may suggest one candidate per department. Projects may include NGOs, governmental bodies, foundations, cultural institutions and hospitals as collaborators.
Value: Grants are worth up to €250,000 over between 12 and 24 months. Grants cover salary of the researcher, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and research assistants, as well as equipment, conferences, workshops, field work and outreach activities.
NIH National Center of Advancing Translation Sciences: Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Public Heath Need – call deadline 4 May 2020
Details: NCATS is particularly interested in projects focusing on the use of informatics solutions to diagnose cases and the use of CTSA-supported core resources (e.g., advanced scientific instruments, highly-specialized facilities, and regulatory expertise) to facilitate research on COVID-19 and advance the translation of research findings into diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.
Value: Not specified
A Covid-19 Rapid Call for Access to the Octopus Facility – call deadline 1 May 2020
Details: The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Central Laser Facility invites applications for its COVID-19 rapid call for access to the octopus facility. This enables researchers to use the Octopus imaging facility for research relevant to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19.
Value: Not specified
Institute for Humane Studies: Summer fellowships special round – call deadline 30 April 2020
Details: Support for currently enrolled graduate students in the humanities and social sciences whose summer 2020 plans may have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. International students are eligible, however preference is given to applicants who live or study in the US, Canada or the UK.
Value: $15000
Ministry of Defence GB - Open Call for Innovation - COVID-19 Fast Track - Call Deadline 28 April 2020 - 12 noon
Details: The Ministry of Defence, through the Defence and Security Accelerator, invites applications for its covid-19 fast track open call for innovation. This seeks ideas or novel approaches that could boost the ministry’s capabilities in support of the national effort against coronavirus. Proposals should be clear as to whether they seek to address the current covid-19 threat or future similar scenarios. Proposals addressing the current pandemic must have the ability or relevant permissions to successfully deliver the project despite current working restrictions. Proposals for products or services that are already available on the market to solve challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic will not be considered. Proposals must address the development of novel and innovative solutions.
Applications are open to the private sector, academia, individuals and public sector research establishments. There are no nationality restrictions.
Value: No funding limit is specified, however proposals must demonstrate value for money.
NIHR: Small grants for early career researchers in tropical medicine or global health – call deadline 27 April 2020
Details: The NIHR Global Health Research programme has partnered with the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH) to fund small grants to early career global health researchers worldwide. Grants will support clinical or scientific research or fieldwork, as stand-alone projects or distinct elements within larger projects.
Value: £5,000
Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund for COVID-19 – call deadline 20 April 2020
Details: Round 3 deadline extension for Covid-19 related research applications
Diabetes UK: COVID-19 and Diabetes - rapid response call - call deadline 20 April 2020
Details: Diabetes UK invites applications for its COVID-19 and diabetes rapid response call. This supports research into how coronavirus affects people living with diabetes and aims transform relevant care and treatment. The range of potential research questions include which groups of people with diabetes might be at greater risk of complications from COVID-19 and the impact of the pandemic on people with diabetes’ mental health.
Award: £100000
University of Edinburgh Alan Turing Institute: Health and clinical data applications for COVID-19 – call closing date 3 April 2020
The Alan Turing Institute has launched a rapid response call for existing teams of data science experts with strong experience in working with health and clinical data applications, to conduct focused work on clinical questions surrounding Covid-19, as defined by a steering committee.
The DECOVID collaboration aims to address urgent questions defined by clinical staff in order to produce rapid insights which are actionable on the frontline at a local level. This will support proactive care and management during the COVID-19 pandemic, with learning facilitated across the NHS through the insights of robust data science modelling, without placing a burden on front line staff.
Deadline for teams of experts to submit an expression of interest was 3 April 2020.
NOTE: Although the closing date has now past, the application form remain open to continue to allow way of collecting details of any further interested teams or individuals who could be called upon later, or who may be interested in taking part in the ‘wave 2’ research.