Covid-19 rapid response funding awards issued
4 August 2020
18 Covid-19 °×С½ãÂÛ̳ research projects have been awarded grants in a competitive rapid response funding call.
More than £700,000 in total has been awarded to projects including: one seeking to develop rapid, portable antibody testing; one following patients after hospitalisation for Covid-19; and one looking at how passengers on buses can be kept safe.
Funding comes from multiple sources including the °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Coronavirus Response Fund (It’s All Academic campaign), °×С½ãÂÛ̳H Biomedical Research Centre (°×С½ãÂÛ̳H BRC), and the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund.
4 projects will also be co-funded by Moorfields Eye Hospital BRC (MEH BRC).
The 18 projects to receive funding are:
- COVID-19 post hospitalisation follow-up study, Professor Sam Janes   Â
- COVIDTrach; a UK national cohort study of mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients undergoing tracheostomy, Dr Nick Hamilton   Â
- Defining neutralising antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, Dr Laura McCoy  Â
- Establishing a mechanism for Covid19 inflammatory disease, Professor Greg Towers
- How does SARS-CoV-2 affect the nervous system? (MEH BRC co-funded) Dr Ross Paterson and Dr Laura Benjamin
- Mitigating The Inequitable Effects Of Covid-19 Using Community And Cultural Assets (MEH BRC co-funded), Professor Helen Chatterjee
- Optimising 2020 secondary school transition processes during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Sandra Leaton-Gray  Â
- Predicting beneficial versus harmful responses immune responses in COVID-19 (MEH BRC co-funded), Professor Lucy Walker
- Protein degraders of cyclophilin proteins as treatments for SARS-COV-2, Professor David Selwood  Â
- Rapid evaluation of vaccine-induced neutralising antibodies against SARS-CoV-2–Building Capacity, Dr Matthew Reeves  Â
- Rapid, portable, and scalable Covid-19 antibody testing (MEH BRC co-funded), Professor Stefan Howorka
- Reducing the risk of aerosols in dentistry and getting dentists back drilling Professor Ian Eames  Â
- Safety for Passengers in Buses, Professor Nick Tyler  Â
- Serological comparison of proven and suspected cases of COVID-19 pneumonia (SeroCOVID), Professor Jeremy Brown  Â
- The Impact of COVID-19 and Lockdown on Foster Carers and Children in Care, Dr Nick Midgley  Â
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sexual and reproductive health in Britain, Dr Nigel Field  Â
- The psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NHS affiliated staff – monitoring response to the pandemic and the evaluation staff support programmes, Professor Rosalind Raine  Â
- You-COPE study: Youth COVID response personal experience: Tracking health and wellbeing amongst 16-24-year-olds in the UK during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Lee HudsonÂ