Community Jameel Imperial College COVID-19 Excellence Fund

The Community Jameel Imperial College COVID-19 Excellence Fund was launched in June 2020 to provide support for research projects into the impact, understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19.

The £1M fund was co-created by Community Jameel and Imperial, with Imperial’s contribution coming from the President’s Excellence Fund, which provides discretionary funding to support research of exceptional merit. Building on College’s previous COVID Research Fund, this Excellence Fund funded awards between £50,000 and £200,000 for novel and essential high impact research projects requiring additional funding to be scaled up.

Imperial has been at the forefront of the global response to the pandemic, with academics from across the College channelling their expertise to advise the public and policymakers, develop new vaccines and therapies, create new diagnostic tests and to understand the broader impact of COVID-19 infection. The rapid funding provided by the COVID-19 Excellence Fund enabled the most innovative projects to progress at an accelerated pace, without being held back by a lack of resources. Awards were made by the COVID-19 Research Fund Review Committee, a panel made up of senior researchers and College leaders, advised by our clinical, virological and public health colleagues. 

Our partnership with the global philanthropic organisation Community Jameel has played a vital role in shaping Imperial’s response to the pandemic. In addition to joining the College in the creation of the Community Jameel Imperial College COVID-19 Excellence Fund, last year Community Jameel co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics. The Jameel Institute is headed by Professor Neil Ferguson, whose landmark reports have influenced COVID-19 policies around the world.

Discover the projects supported by the Community Jameel Imperial College COVID-19 Excellence Fund