On Mar. 6, 2020, to further contribute to global efforts to address the COVID-19 outbreak, Canada’s Minister of Health, and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced an investment of nearly $27 million to fund coronavirus research.

Due to the overwhelming response to the call for research applications, the Government of Canada increased its original investment from $7 million to $27 million. This investment will support 47 research teams from across Canada that will focus on accelerating the development, testing, and implementation of measures to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The research will help inform clinical and public health responses, develop and evaluate diagnostic tools and vaccines, as well as create strategies to tackle misinformation, stigma, and fear. The Government of Canada is providing the funding for this research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC) through the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and Genome Canada (GC).