Table 3.
Examples of types of funding announcements illustrating various points most relevant for the lessons (e.g. rapid call, minorities, other topics)
| Date | Country/funder | Topic/title of programme | Amount in local currency | USD | GBP | EUR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combined spending plans | ||||||
| March 2020 | Canadian federal government [132] | Press release: Canada’s plan to mobilize science to fight COVID-19 | Can$ 275 million | 200 million | 162 million | 180 million |
| April 2020 | Canadian federal government [90] | Press release: PM announces new support for COVID-19 medical research and vaccine development | Can$ 1billion+ | 0.73 billion+ | 0.6 billion | 0.65 billion |
| Rapid/early funding | ||||||
| Feb 2020 | UK: NIHR/UK Research and Innovation (MRC) [133] | Novel coronavirus research: (1) vaccines and therapeutics; (2) diagnostics and epidemiology, spread, containment, basic knowledge | £20 million | 25 million | 20 million | 22 million |
| Feb 2020 | Canada: CIHR and other research councils [115] | Canadian 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research Funding |
Can$ 7 million (ended up Can$ 55 million) |
5 million (40 million) |
4 million (32 million) |
4.6 million (36 million) |
| Feb 2020 | New Zealand: HRC/Ministry of Health [134] | Government agencies launch rapid research response to COVID-19 threat | NZ$ 3 million | 1.9 million | 1.5 million | 1.7 million |
| April 2020 | Brazil: National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [135] | COVID-19 treatment, vaccine, diagnosis, pathogenesis and natural history of the disease, disease burden, attention to health, prevention, and control | R$ 49 million | 9.2 million | 7.4 million | 8.3 million |
| Initial funding—indigenous/minority populations | ||||||
| March 2020 | Australia: Paul Ramsay Foundation [116] | Support for APPRISE COVID-19 research with First Nations Peoples (part of Foundation’s A$ 9 million initial COVID programme) | A$ 2 million | 1.3 million | 1.2 million | 1.2 million |
| Aug 2020 | New Zealand: HRC [111] | Māori-led part of 2020 COVID-19 Equity Response (Total NZ$ 8 million) | NZ$ 3 million | 1.9 million | 1.5 million | 1.7 million |
| Sept 2020 | Canada: CIHR [118] | Indigenous COVID-19 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity | Can$ 2 million | 1.5 million | 1.2 million | 1.3 million |
| Sept 2020 | USA: NIH [120] | Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Underserved Populations (first allocations to 32 institutions—part of US$ 1.5 billion RADx initiative begun in late April 2020) | US$ 234 (up to US$ 512 million by Nov 2021) [136] | 234 million |
189 million (414 million) |
210 million (460 million) |
| International/networks | ||||||
| March 2020 | UK: government [137] | Press release: PM announces record funding to find a coronavirus vaccine—donation to CEPI | £210 million | 260 million | 210 million | 233 million |
| Oct 2020 | Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research [94] | Funding of 13 projects in the National Research Network of University Medicine (network had been established in spring 2020) | €150 million | 167 million | 135 million | 150 million |
| Subnational organization | ||||||
| March 2020 | Brazil: Rio de Janeiro state government [135] | Rio de Janeiro State Research Support Foundation—COVID-19 research programme | R$ 24.6 million | 4.6 million | 3.7 million | 4.1 million |
| April 2020 | Australia: NSW Government [113] | NSW Health COVID-19 Research Program—various streams | A$ 25 million | 16.7 million | 13.5 million | 15 million |
| Public/private sector collaborations | ||||||
| May 2020 | US federal government [59] | Operation Warp Speed: public (multi-agency)/private collaboration: develop and manufacture new vaccines and drugs | US$ 10 billion (ended up higher) | 10 billion | 9 billion | 8.1 billion |
| Sept 2020 | Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research [138] | Funding to BioNTech (part of €750 million to three companies) to support development and production capacity for COVID-19 vaccines | €445 million | 496 million | 401 million | 445 million |
Currency equivalents as at end of May 2020