Community Jameel and Imperial College London create a new initiative to scale up innovative coronavirus research

• The initiative will support major research projects into the impact, understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19

Community Jameel and Imperial College London have created a new initiative to support the scale-up of crucial COVID-19 projects. This initiative will provide new support for major research projects into the impact, understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19.

The initiative was co-created by Community Jameel and Imperial College, with Imperial’s contribution coming from the President’s Excellence Fund.

Imperial College is at the forefront of the global effort to respond to the crisis. And academics from across Imperial College are channeling their expertise to advise the public and policymakers, drive our understanding of the disease, develop new vaccines and therapies, and create new technologies to support the fight against the novel coronavirus.

This new initiative will sit alongside the College’s existing COVID-19 Response Fund, providing support to each to rapidly scale up high-impact projects.

The move signals Community Jameel ’s commitment to tackling some of the world's most urgent challenges. The global philanthropy and Imperial College co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics last year to draw on Imperial’s expertise in data analytics and epidemiology and improve our understanding of diseases and health emergencies in the most vulnerable populations across the globe.

Professor Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London, said: “This generous gift is a step-change in support for the College’s vital COVID-19 research, helping us to unlock new, high-impact avenues of research that will have a profound impact in the global fight against this disease.

“Community Jameel have long been a beacon for the transformative power of philanthropy. We hope that others will share their foresight and join us as we race to confront the most urgent crisis in a generation.”

Fady Jameel, President, International of Community Jameel, said: “The work of the team at the Jameel Institute has been at the forefront of enabling policy makers and the public to make more sense of the pandemic. We are humbled to be able to support the vital research they do and, with the new Excellence Fund, continue to enable scientists to rigorously explore new avenues in tackling this most important of challenges.”

Grants from the new fund are expected to start being awarded to projects in the summer following a panel review and selection process by the COVID-19 Research Fund Review Committee.