On Nov. 16, 2020, the UK Department for Health and Social Care Testing Innovation Fund announced £12.2M funding to the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium in expanding whole genome sequencing of positive SARS-CoV-2 virus samples

The 12.2M funding facilitated the Sanger Institute’s contribution to building a national real-time genomic surveillance system of COVID-19 to help tackle the pandemic.