The Medical Research Council (MRC) is funding new projects as part of the UK Research and Innovation response to the current COVID-19 pandemic through the DHSC/UKRI COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative.

MRC expects all applications which will deliver public health impact within the next twelve months to be submitted to the joint DHSC/UKRI COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative NIHR single portal site.

UKRI has put in place the following process to allow researchers to repurpose existing UKRI standard grant to address COVID-19 research priorities. To be eligible, the research to be undertaken must address 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

For those unable to repurpose their existing funding, and research aims will not deliver public health benefits within twelve months, MRC will consider applications through the UKRI rolling call to collect and store time-sensitive resource/data for future research use of benefit and relevance to combating COVID-19 in the UK context.