On May 8, 2020, the Rice University COVID-19 Research Fund Oversight and Review Committee announced it had funded six additional projects by faculty working to mitigate the effects of the new coronavirus.

Researchers at Rice, some with the help of off-campus colleagues, plan to develop a device that rapidly identifies high-risk COVID-19 patients; a mobile phone-based test to detect the virus; a project to show how images, narratives and histories shape pandemic response; a study of how COVID-19 response policies impact air quality; a survey of Harris County residents to identify barriers to staying at home; and a study of the environmental impact of COVID-19 in Texas.