Funding for COVID-19 research

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.

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.

Last updated: 18 January 2024

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.