Alice Norton, Adrian Bucher, Emilia Antonio, Nicole Advani, , Sheila Mburu, Emma Clegg, Marguerite Gollish, Nusrat Jabin, Laura Scott, Genevieve Boily-Larouche, A. Morgan Lay, Gail Carson and Marta Tufet

To make best use of the expansive data in the COVID-19 Research Project Tracker, UKCDR & GloPID-R produce a quarterly Living Mapping Review of COVID-19 funded research projects, which analyses globally funded COVID-19 related research. 

COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented research response, demonstrating exceptional examples of rapid research and collaboration. There is however a need for greater coordination, with limited resources and the shifting global nature of the pandemic resulting in a proliferation of research projects underpowered and unable to achieve their aims.

Published on Wellcome Open Access, this Living Mapping Review (LMR) is an open-access, peer-reviewed paper that is updated every 3 months, providing in-depth analysis of the breadth of funding, remaining gaps, opportunities, and trends. 

It will help both funders and researchers to prioritise resources to underfunded areas where there is greatest research need and will facilitate further strategic collaboration.


 A living mapping review for COVID-19 funded research projects: November 2022

The eighth iteration of the LMR corresponds to Tracker data from 15 April 2022. It contains 16,353 projects, funded by 319 funders, taking place across 157 countries representing an investment of at least $6.2 billion.

Tracker Highlights: COVID-19 funded research projects in focus 

Tracker Highlights takes a deeper look at four key themes that have emerged from analysis of our Tracker data: indirect health impacts, research capacity strengthening, long COVID and new variants. These were most recently updated in July 2022.

LMR 12-month update: March 2022
LMR nine-month update: July 2021

Read the 9 month update on Wellcome Open Research


COVID-19 Funded Research Projects In Focus 

As part of the release of the 6-month update, we have updated our deeper looks at three key themes that emerged during our analysis:

  1. indirect health impacts of COVID-19 (April 2021)
  2. research capacity strengthening (April 2021)
  3. long COVID (April 2021)
LMR six-month update: April 2021

In this six-month update we provide a detailed analysis of the database and focus our thematic analysis on research gaps, research areas in need of coordination, study populations and research locations (with a focus on resource-limited countries).

COVID-19 Funded Research Projects In Focus 

As part of the release of the 6-month update, we have updated our deeper looks at three key themes that emerged during our analysis:

  1. indirect health impacts of COVID-19 (April 2021)
  2. research capacity strengthening (April 2021)
  3. long COVID (April 2021)
LMR three-month update: December 2020

In this three-month update we provide a detailed analysis of the database and focus our thematic analysis on research gaps, research areas in need of coordination, study populations and research locations (with a focus on resource-limited countries).

Read Version 2 on Wellcome Open Research

COVID-19 Funded Research Projects In Focus 

As part of the release of the first 3-month update, we have taken a deeper look at three key themes that emerged during our analysis:

  1. Indirect health impacts of COVID-19 (Dec 2020)
  2. research capacity strengthening (Dec 2020)
  3. long COVID (Dec 2020)
Baseline Living Mapping Review: July 2020

In this baseline analysis we provided the first detailed descriptive analysis of the database and focus our thematic analysis on research gaps, study populations and research locations (with a focus of resource-limited countries).

Read the baseline LMR – July 2020 

About UKCDR’s work on COVID-19

The  initiative COVID CIRCLE – COVID-19 Research Coordination and Learning – is a partnership between UKCDR and the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R).

COVID CIRCLE harnesses current UKCDR and GloPID-R activities, including continual mapping and analysis of global COVID-19 funding through our COVID Tracker.