The Office of the Vice President for Research is accepting applications for OVPR COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants, a program that aims to catalyze and energize small-scale research projects designed to address and mitigate the risk associated with the coronavirus pandemic, including cascading impacts in communities. The primary focus of the grants is to fund research that informs near real-time decision making for professionals tasked with making operational response decisions.
Researchers outside of the medical school are strongly encouraged to apply (medical researchers are encouraged to apply for rapid response funds through the Office of Academic and Clinical Affairs). To be eligible, researchers must be full-time faculty or P&A staff at UMN.
Awards range from $5,000 to $10,000, with grants lasting 12 months. Funding is available starting March 19, 2020 and will continue to be available until funds are expended or until April 30, 2020, whichever comes first.
To date, OVPR has funded projects ranging from new diagnostic approaches and tools to tracking social contact patterns to inform social distancing mitigation strategies to the development of a copper-composite face mask, involving scholars from public health, bioproducts, medical devices, journalism, computer science, and more. Learn more about the grant program and funded projects.