Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), these new research projects on coronavirus transmission, which have been awarded a total of £5.3 million, will help inform policy decisions about COVID-19, including infection prevention strategies and containment measures.
Professor Fiona Watt, Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council, part of UKRI, said “We still don’t know enough about how and where SARS-CoV-2 is spread. This range of studies seeks to determine the risk of transmission in real life settings, including schools and hospitals.
“The results will not only help us understand when to take extra precautions when necessary, but could also allow us to return to more social behaviour in settings where the risk is deemed low.”
This group of projects forms part of a rolling call for research proposals on COVID-19, jointly funded by UKRI and NIHR and supported by the Medical Research Council, in response to the pandemic. The research funded to date includes projects on treatments, vaccines and the spread of the virus, as well as specific calls on COVID-19 and ethnicity, and the wider impact of the virus on mental health.
Read the full story and details of the projects on the UKRI website.