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The Office of Research on Monday (March 30) announced two more actions in support of the university’s research on the novel coronavirus, launching the COVID-19 Research Accelerator Fund and setting up virtual town halls to be held weekly starting this week.

All this follows last week’s establishment of the

The COVID-19 Research Accelerator Fund aims to provide rapid-response awards to support research activity on campus, including facilitating both intra- and extramural collaborations. Funding is being provided by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Research, as well as the School of Medicine, and in partnership with matching support from the other schools and colleges.

The call for funding is open to all disciplines performing research on or related to COVID-19. Funds are to be used to support immediate research needs and proof of concept work, and must be expended within nine months, preferably six.

Town halls on Fridays

The COVID-19 Research Virtual Town Halls will be held from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Fridays starting April 3, moderated by Allison Brashear, dean of the School of Medicine, and Prasant Mohapatra, vice chancellor of research.

Like the Research Accelerator Fund, the town halls are open to ºÙºÙÊÓƵ researchers from all disciplines working on COVID-19-related research.

Under a proposed framework, the town halls will address issues related to acute trials, immunity studies, understanding the mechanisms and other issues, while also asking such questions as, Where we are now? Where we will be in the next, say, one to three months? What about the near future (beyond six months)? Opportunities for collaborations and exploration of funding will also be discussed.