To make best use of the expansive data in the COVID-19 Research Project Tracker, UKCDR & GloPID-R produce a quarterly Living Mapping Review of COVID-19 funded research projects, which analyses globally funded COVID-19 related research.
COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented research response, demonstrating exceptional examples of rapid research and collaboration. There is however a need for greater coordination, with limited resources and the shifting global nature of the pandemic resulting in a proliferation of research projects underpowered and unable to achieve their aims.
Published on Wellcome Open Access, this Living Mapping Review (LMR) is an open-access, peer-reviewed paper that is updated every 3 months, providing in-depth analysis of the breadth of funding, remaining gaps, opportunities, and trends.
It will help both funders and researchers to prioritise resources to underfunded areas where there is greatest research need and will facilitate further strategic collaboration.
A living mapping review for COVID-19 funded research projects: July 2022
The sixth iteration of the LMR corresponds to Tracker data from October 2021. The analysis looks at 13,484 projects, spanning 285 research funders based in 53 countries, representing an investment of at least 5.1 billion USD.
It shows a continued expansion of both funding and capture of funding across the global funding landscape in the Tracker, including for projects taking place in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). As noted in the previous iteration, there is a clear plateauing of the COVID-19 funding response. It is therefore vital that researchers, funders, and policymakers engage with the LMR and the data it captures (accessible from the Tracker) to ensure that resources are directed to areas of continued unmet research need.
This iteration includes a fourth addition to the LMR’s suite of thematic analyses (‘Tracker Highlights’) on new COVID-19 variants.
Tracker Highlights: COVID-19 funded research projects in focus
Tracker Highlights takes a deeper look at four key themes that have emerged from analysis of our Tracker data: indirect health impacts, research capacity strengthening, long COVID and new variants. These were most recently updated in July 2022.
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LMR 12-month update: March 2022
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LMR nine-month update: July 2021
Read the 9 month update on Wellcome Open Research
COVID-19 Funded Research Projects In Focus
As part of the release of the 6-month update, we have updated our deeper looks at three key themes that emerged during our analysis:
- indirect health impacts of COVID-19 (April 2021)
- research capacity strengthening (April 2021)
- long COVID (April 2021)
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LMR six-month update: April 2021
In this six-month update we provide a detailed analysis of the database and focus our thematic analysis on research gaps, research areas in need of coordination, study populations and research locations (with a focus on resource-limited countries).
COVID-19 Funded Research Projects In Focus
As part of the release of the 6-month update, we have updated our deeper looks at three key themes that emerged during our analysis:
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LMR three-month update: December 2020
In this three-month update we provide a detailed analysis of the database and focus our thematic analysis on research gaps, research areas in need of coordination, study populations and research locations (with a focus on resource-limited countries).
Read Version 2 on Wellcome Open Research
COVID-19 Funded Research Projects In Focus
As part of the release of the first 3-month update, we have taken a deeper look at three key themes that emerged during our analysis:
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Baseline Living Mapping Review: July 2020
In this baseline analysis we provided the first detailed descriptive analysis of the database and focus our thematic analysis on research gaps, study populations and research locations (with a focus of resource-limited countries).
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About UKCDR's work on COVID-19
The initiative COVID CIRCLE – COVID-19 Research Coordination and Learning – is a partnership between UKCDR and the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R).
COVID CIRCLE harnesses current UKCDR and GloPID-R activities, including continual mapping and analysis of global COVID-19 funding through our COVID Tracker.