On Oct. 2, 2020, the Uconn Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) announced a new internal funding program to support researchers at all of UConn’s campuses who were using their expertise in fields as diverse as wastewater and chemosensory testing to find novel solutions to help the nation and the world address this crisis.

The program awarded up to $50,000 to recipients. The OVPR awarded five awards to researchers from UConn and UConn Health.

In addition to these five awards, the OVPR has decided to rapidly launch a second funding cycle to provide additional support for promising projects.

This second funding cycle is expanded in scope. Researchers with proposals for earlier-stage COVID-19 seed projects, small scale pilot projects, projects related to the social and medical impact of COVID-19, and other relevant topics are encouraged to apply. The OVPR anticipates funding an additional 10 awards of up to $10,000 each.

The program aims to fund high-impact projects that will be ready to launch in a short period of time in areas that have been identified by funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health as high priority. These include, but are not limited to, wastewater detection of SARS-COV-2, novel biosensing from skin and mouth, surveillance methods for high risk populations, automatic detection and tracing, use of artificial intelligence, and data management.