UCL comes out top for UKRI Covid-19 research funding grants

UCL has recieved the most Covid-19 funding of any higher education institution according to new figures published by the UK's national research funding agency UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Of the ten largest grants available, UCL has been awarded the most for total amount of funding, at over £27m, followed by Imperial College London with £21.4m in total. UCL has also claimed the number one spot for the grant with the highest value, at over £10.3m, which was awarded to Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker, Dean of UCL Engineering, to create The Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub. Due to advances in targeted biological medicines, it is anticipated that by 2025, there will be a need to supply an increasing number of drug products to targeted populations, with some targeted therapies addressing diseases for which there is currently no cure. Presently, there is a lack of existing technology and infrastructure to do this. With UKRI funding, the UCL team hopes to create the technologies, skillsets and trained personnel needed to enable UK manufactures to deliver the promise of advanced medical precision and patient screening, and provide the engineering infrastructure needed for sustainable healthcare. A grant of £6.9m has also been awarded to Dr Martina Micheletti, also in the Faculty of Engineering, to establish The Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub (Vax-Hub), which aims to enable leading UK scientists to commercialise their vaccine discoveries in the UK instead of overseas.