UKRI Funding Call for Ideas to Address COVID-19 (United Kingdom)

Deadline: 18 September 2020

The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is inviting proposals 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 of 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.

If a grant is awarded, they will provide funding at 80% of the fEC.

What UKRI is looking for:

• You will need to show why it is not possible to resource the work by re purposing existing funds you may have available.
• Proposals should:
  • Describe the approach you will take and put it in the context of the national response to COVID-19. International collaboration is permitted, so long as the research is of relevance to the UK.
  • Explain the level of urgency, and why the activity is important now.
  • Demonstrate that the proposal has the necessary critical mass to make a difference. Where relevant, demonstrate the strength of links to relevant decision makers.
  • Demonstrate a clear route to impact within the timescale of the project.
  • Confirm whether the research requires any access to the health and care system and if so describe how you will comply with the newly established DHSC single, national process for prioritisation of COVID-19 research studies.
  • Give an estimate of the resources required (within 10%).
  • As part of the submission, the proposal may include requests for access to UKRI experimental, analytical or computational capabilities that are currently operational.
  • Name the team that will run this and describe their ability and capacity to deliver
  • UKRI can help provide access to pooled research staff from UK facilities, including research software engineering support and staff data scientists. Indicate on the form if help assembling the team is needed.
  • Provide evidence that the host institution or business supports the proposal and that the research can be carried out under present institutional or business restrictions.
• Proposals that are out of scope
  • These include:
    • funding to directly mitigate the effects of the pandemic on specific institutions and businesses.
    • proposals more appropriate to other existing funding calls and /or other research funders.
      • UKRI will act to transfer proposals to appropriate other calls that are open, so do submit here if you are unsure.
      • Longer term research proposals that address the COVID-19 emergency or future pandemics that don’t meet the urgency guidelines should be submitted through normal responsive mode.

Eligibility Criteria

• You can apply for Innovate UK  funding if you are a UK based business.
• All kinds of businesses can apply – from pre-startup and new companies to large multi-nationals.
• You can apply for funding if you want to do one or more of the following:
  • To test the feasibility of your idea and make sure it will work.
  • Create a new product, process or service, or improve an existing one, through research and development.
  • Work with other businesses or research organisations on collaborative projects.
• If your proposal involves a public health outcome within 12 months:
  • If your proposal has:
    • The potential to directly deliver a public health impact within the next 12 months.
    • Not already been submitted to the initiative’s earlier calls.
• Researchers holding existing UKRI standard grants can apply to switch their funding to address the objectives of this call.
• You may be asked to become part of wider consortia or join with already existing efforts.
• Only one active bid can be under submission from a researcher or business at any time.

For more information, visit https://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/ukri-open-call-for-research-and-innovation-ideas-to-address-covid-19/