In the event of an epidemic, and in between ongoing epidemics, this group supports UK research funders to share relevant information, network and communicate to support coherence and collaboration in the funding and the use of research in epidemics preparedness and response.
UK research funders have committed over £300m to fund research to accelerate the development of vaccines, diagnostics and treatment for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Funders are aligning their response to WHO research priorities set out in the Coordinated Global Research Roadmap.
In a time of global crisis, it is of critical importance that funders come together to ensure research is coordinated and aligned with global research priorities to support rapid and effective epidemic preparedness and response.
Furthermore, to ensure coordination at a global level, UKCDR is undertaking this in collaboration with the international research funder coordinating mechanism GLOPID-R who co-hosted the WHO R&D meeting on COVID-19 alongside WHO.
So far, our members have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak through the following research funding initiatives:
Funders, such as UKRI, are also re-purposing existing grants, therefore the figures above do not reflect the totality of the overall investment.
The ongoing situation regarding COVID-19 has significantly impacted the research & innovation community. UK funders are releasing guidance on how this will impact researchers, grant applicants and grant holders.