You can apply for funding to research COVID-19 as part of normal UKRI funding streams and opportunities.
We are interested in funding research and innovation that:
- has a clear impact pathway with the potential to deliver a significant contribution to the understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts
- supports the manufacture or wide-scale adoption of an intervention with significant potential for COVID-19
- gathers time-critical data and resources related to COVID-19 quickly and secures them for future research use
- builds capability in areas that will be necessary to deliver a significant contribution to the understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts in the future.
Before applying
You must check the details of projects that are already funded to avoid duplicating existing work.
See all UKRI-funded COVID-19 projects.
You must check our priority areas for funding to increase your chances of submitting a successful application.
See our current priority areas for COVID-19 funding (PDF, 152KB).
Areas that are now out of scope include:
- funding to directly mitigate the effects of the pandemic on specific institutions and businesses
- longer term research proposals that address the COVID-19 emergency or future pandemics.
How to apply
Find and apply for new funding for a COVID-19 project using the funding finder.
When applying through all UKRI streams, apart from Innovate UK funding, you must add ‘CV-19’ to the start of your project title.
This allows UKRI to track COVID-19 projects. It will not secure any advantage for your proposal compared to others with different focuses.
Future funding
As well as the usual funding channels, in 2021 there will also be:
- further strategic UKRI COVID-19 funding opportunities
- future funding opportunities by research councils, tailored to tackle aspects of the pandemic.
Emergency route for time-critical COVID-19 research
Under exceptional circumstances we may support urgent data collection or rapid turnaround research needed to inform urgent policy or national decision making.
Expression of interest: emergency route for time-critical COVID-19 research
Last updated: 6 January 2021