COVID-19: Research Office and Research Funding Update

All members of the Research Office including the Corporate Partnerships team and Scholarly Communications team are now working remotely. Please contact colleagues as normal, by email or via Microsoft Teams. If you’re not sure who to speak to email research-office@westminster.ac.uk

Please refer to the University of Westminster Coronavirus Response page for updated advice about the pandemic and the University’s response.

We have collated and linked to all currently available information from research funders regarding the impact of COVID-19. We will update this document as information becomes available, but for the most up to date information please make sure you check the funder website.

If you have a project funded via the University’s internal funding schemes: Research Communities Fund, Impact Fund, school-level Researcher Development Fund and GCRF-QR projects, please do the best you can to progress the research via online or alternative means. We can work with you to explore contingencies. If there is no alternative means to progress the activity and travel needs to take place next financial year, we will work to make that happen.

Individual Funder Guidance

UKRI – UKRI staff are working from home where possible; please contact colleagues in the usual way. UKRI intend to run schemes as normal but will possibly be extending some call deadlines where appropriate.
British Academy – Staff will be working remotely and contactable by email or by phone. Public events have been cancelled until the end of May. Requests for no-cost extensions to awards and requests for virement of funding between cost headings will be treated sympathetically (submit requests in the usual way by email: see page for email contacts).
European Commission – So far, call deadlines have been extended for both Societal Challenge 6 (now 19 March 2020) and Research Infrastructures (now 14 May 2020) calls. For Horizon 2020 calls with original deadlines between now and 15 April, extensions will be applied. The precise new deadlines for each call and topic will be published on the call and topic pages on the Funding and Tenders Portal. UKRO has prepared a new section on the Portal to allow subscribers finding the latest announcements and advice on the COVID-19 outbreak easily. If you haven’t already signed up to UKRO, please do so to view the page.
Leverhulme Trust – Leverhulme will allow reasonable changes to budget lines and/or no-cost extensions to grants. Contact grants@leverhulme.ac.uk to agree extensions and budgetary changes in advance.
NIHR FAQs – Many research studies funded by NIHR, or supported by NIHR (via the Clinical Research Network and other NIHR infrastructure) may need to be paused, to free up NIHR-funded staff to help bolster the frontline response to COVID-19. In addition, NIHR recognises that award-holding organisations may need to pause research studies for locally determined public health reasons.
Royal Society – Staff will be working remotely and can be contacted by phone or email. All funding programmes and calls currently remain open for applications in line with advertised dates. We will endeavour not to make any changes to application deadlines, interview dates or decision dates.
Wellcome Trust – All funding schemes and calls remain open for applications. Application deadlines, shortlisting, interview and decision dates will not change. The Trust will be supplementing grant holders in various circumstances, please see webpage for details.

COVID-19: Health Research Updates

The Health Research Authority (HRA) has an information page around ‘COVID-19: Guidance for sponsors, sites and researchers (v2 17 March 2020)’ – the page provides guidance relating to Research Ethics Committee (REC) and NHS arrangements. The HRA advise that as this is a rapidly evolving situation guidance will be updated in response to feedback. Researchers should check back for updates here.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) also has published information regarding ‘Advice for Management of Clinical trials in relation to Coronavirus’ on its website: https://mhrainspectorate.blog.gov.uk/