Current COVID-19 Funding Opportunities for R&D

May 14th, 2020 – The following, compiled by the SBA/CT and the University of Connecticut, lists currently available funding sources for companies and organizations conducting research and development efforts, or commercial product/service development, that could have a positive impact on the nation’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Contact the program manager of the respective agency prior to applying.

The following is not a comprehensive list. We will add to the list as we learn about these opportunities for COVID-19 related research.

Fast Funding Grants

• (Due to the large number of applications, this is currently paused.) Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science: If you are a scientist at an academic institution currently working on a COVID-19 related project and in need of funding, we invite you to apply for a Fast Grant. Fast Grants are $10k to $500k and decisions are made in under 48 hours.

Federal Agencies

National Science Foundation (NSF)

• Dear Colleague Letter on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • This mechanism can also be used for research on the impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate education. Contact a program officer in DUEprior to applying.
• Dear Colleague Letter: Provisioning Advanced Cyberinfrastructure to Further Research on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• Dear Colleague Letter: Request for SBIR/STTR Phase I Proposals Addressing COVID-19
• New COVID-19 HPC Consortium (through XSEDE): Potential benefits for COVID-19 response, Feasibility of the technical approach, Need for high-performance computing, High-performance computing knowledge and experience of the proposing team, Estimated computing resource requirements (rolling due date)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The NIH has made supplements available for currently funded projects; the parent project must be realistically related to the COVID-19 research, and must be in the original performance period (not in an extension). New funding opportunities are expected to be published on an ongoing basis.

• NOT-HL-20-757(NHLBI)
• NOT-TR-20-011(NCATS)
• NOT-DA-20-047(NIDA)
• NOT-HS-20-007(AHRQ)
• NOT-HS-20-008(AHRQ)
• NOT-MD-20-019: Competitive and administrative supplements for the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on minority health and health disparities
• NIH COVID-19 related funding opportunities
  • PA-18-591:Administrative supplements to existing NIH grants and cooperative agreements
  • PA-18-935: Urgent competitive revision to existing NIH grants and cooperative agreements
  • PA-20-135: Emergency competitive revision to existing NIH awards
  • NewPAR 20-178 Emergency Awards: Rapid Investigation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (rolling deadline)
• NOT-OD-20-097: Administrative supplements and urgent competitive revisions for research on the 2019 novel coronavirus and the behavioral and social sciences
• NOT-EB-20-007: Development of biomedical technologies for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• NOT-EB-20-008: Emergency competitive revision and administrative supplements on biomedical technologies for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Health and Human Services (HHS)

• BARDA(Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority)
  • Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)
  • BARDA’s Division of Research, Innovation & Ventures (DRIVe) Easy Broad Agency AnnouncementCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation’s Health

Department of Defense (DOD)

• Prototype Development to Combat Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19
• Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic
• DARPA: DSO and BTO Joint Acquisition Task Force: COVID-19 Innovation Challenge
• Medical Technical Enterprise Consortium
  • Development of Treatments for COVID-19

Department of Energy (DOE)

• DOE COVID-19 Response Lead Request for Ideas
• New Dear Colleague Letter—Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Through its user facilities, computational power, and enabling infrastructure, DOE has unique capabilities that the scientific community may leverage for the COVID-19 response and recovery. (rolling due date with review starting March 18, 2020)
• New Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • COVID-19 NSLS-II Rapid Access Proposal: The Center for Biomolecular Structure team is supporting remote macromolecular crystallography experiments at Beamlines 17-ID-1 (AMX) and 17-ID-2 (FMX) for research projects related to COVID-19 (rolling due date)

Department of State

• New Combatting COVID-19 Pandemic and Proliferation Threats: Build Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) partner capacity to continue to safely prevent, contain, and mitigate threats and impacts posed by the rapid spread of destabilizing biological and chemical threats at national borders and points of entry, including infectious diseases such as COVID-19 (award ceiling: $5,000,000; due date May 29, 2020)

Foundations/Corporations

American Lung Association

• New COVID-19 and Emerging Respiratory Viruses Research Award (budget up to $100,000; due date May 30, 2020)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• New Health Security & Pandemics Challenge (due date June 18, 2020)

Pfizer, Inc.

• New COVID-19 Competitive Grant Program (budget $20,000-$250,000; due date May 22, 2020)
  • Category A: Independent Medical Education Grants
  • Category B: Quality & Process Improvement Grants

23andMe Research Innovation Collaboration Program

• New COVID-19. These proposals can include studies of outcomes, comorbidities, health disparities, and impacts of policies implemented to address the pandemic (GWAS, Genetic Research) (Due Date: June 12, 2020)

Internet Society

• New Emergency Response Programme: COVID-19 for projects that utilize the Internet to improve lives during or in response to an emergency situation (budget: $250,000 for 1 year; rolling due date until May 17, 2020)

Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC)

• New Rapid-Response Grants on COVID-19 and the Social Sciences (awards will range from $2,000 to $5,000; due June 01, 2020)

Mercatus Center (George Mason University)

• New COVID-19 Response: A Call for Ideas: Proposals for policy briefs, working papers, and articles that address the next round of challenges facing the United States and other countries in the response to the pandemic (rolling due date)

American Heart Association (AHA)

• AHA Rapid Response Grant COVID-19 and Its Cardiovascular Impact

Russell Sage Foundation

• Social, political, economic, or psychological disruptions resulting from the coronavirus crisis that affect social and living conditions in the United States

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative (DDI)

Google (Google Cloud Research Credits)

• COVID-19 Research Grants

Microsoft (C3.ai Institute)

• AI Techniques to Mitigate Pandemic

Facebook

• New Economic Impact of Digital Technologies Request for Proposals: Addressing the economic consequences and implications of developing digital technologies for small businesses, specifically asks for Academic Proposals (budget: $50,000-$100,000; due date May 20, 2020)

Donaghue Foundation

• New Greater Value Portfolio (Budget: $400,000 for a max of 2 years; LOI Due Date: May 11, 2020)

International Opportunities

The GrandChallenge

• New Billion Molecules against COVID-19: Jedi GrandChallenge (Stage 1 deadline: June 6, 2020)

Merck KGaA (Germany)

• New Research Grant for Pandemic Preparedness (deadline: August 31, 2020)

EdTech Hub

• New Call for ideas for EdTech responses to coronavirus (COVID-19)

German Research Foundation (DFG)

• New Call for Multidisciplinary Research into Epidemics and Pandemics in Response to the Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 (LOI Due 07/01/2020; Applications Due 09/01/2020)

Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Mastercard

• New COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator: Focus on clinical-phase research into a limited range of repurposed therapeutics with potential for pre-exposure prophylaxis in high-risk populations (particularly in healthcare settings); and post-exposure prophylaxis in mild/moderate cases

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on March 27. It will provide significant funding to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically and internationally.” The bill includes funding for research. Some of the funds will be available to higher education. We will follow this closely and update you as opportunities come up.

The final bill is available here. The amounts appropriated for several federal agencies give an idea where funding opportunities should be expected:

• National Science Foundation:$76.0 million
• Department of Energy:$99.5 million
• National Endowment for the Arts:$75.0 million (60% of the funds are for direct grants)
• National Endowment for the Humanities:$75.0 million (60% of the funds are for direct grants)
• National Institutes of Health
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: $103.4 million
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: $706.0 million
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering: $ 60.0 million
  • National Library of Medicine: $10.0 million
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences: $36.0 million
  • Office of the Director: $30.0 million
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
  • Health Surveillance and Program Support: $425.0 million
    • At least $250.0 million will be made available for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Expansion Grant program
    • At least $50.0 million will be made available for suicide prevention programs
  • Environmental Protection Agency: $1.5M for research methods on reducing the risks from environmental transmission of the coronavirus via contaminated services or materials.
  • Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology: $6M for Scientific and Technical Research And Services to support continuity of operations, including measurement science to support viral testing and biomanufacturing, $60M for Industrial Technology Services, and $10M for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation to support development and manufacturing of medical countermeasures and biomedical equipment and supplies.
  • Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: $20M for operations, research, and facilities.
  • Department of Defense, Defense Health Program: $415M for research, development, testing and evaluation.
  • Food and Drug Administration: $80M for work on medical counter-measures, therapies, vaccines, and research.
  • Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response: $27B will go to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support research and development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to prevent or treat the effects of the novel coronavirus.