Funder has awarded £24m via ongoing call, with 720 projects still in review
The UK’s national funder of research has funded 87 bids worth £24 million since launching its Covid-19 rapid-response research call at the end of March, it has said.
According to the figures provided to Research Professional News, by 10 June it had received a total of 1,410 proposals, 100 of which were out of scope; 503 have so far been rejected and 720 are currently in review.
UKRI has therefore funded roughly 17 per cent of in-scope applications it has assessed, but a spokesperson said it was “not meaningful to calculate success rates for the open call given the process is ongoing at present”.
The data show the funder has received 411 new applications and approved 38 projects over the last three weeks, since Research Professional News last reported on it.
A standard UKRI call typically takes around nine months from call publication to projects being funded. “The application process for the open call has been significantly streamlined to allow UKRI to quickly identify projects needing urgent funding,” said a spokesperson.
In addition to the rapid-response call, UKRI said several other calls sought to address the impacts of the pandemic. Combined with other investments and repurposing of existing grants, it has funded projects worth in excess of £185m, it said.