On Dec. 21, 2020, the NIH announced that it had awarded over $107 million to support new, non-traditional approaches and reimagined uses of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and surveillance.

Part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, the awards supported 49 research projects and grant supplements at 43 institutions across the U.S. It focused on non-traditional viral screening approaches, such as biological or physiological markers, new analytical platforms with novel chemistries or engineering, rapid detection strategies, point-of-care devices, and home-based testing technologies.