NIH Funding of COVID-19 Research in 2020: a Cross Sectional Study

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Objective This study aims to characterize and evaluate the NIH’s grant allocation pattern of COVID-19 research. Design Cross sectional study Setting COVID-19 NIH RePORTER Dataset was used to identify COVID-19 relevant grants. Participants 1,108 grants allocated to COVID-19 research. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was to determine the number of grants and funding amount the NIH allocated for COVID-19 by research type and clinical/scientific area. The secondary outcome was to calculate the time from the funding opportunity announcement to the award notice date. Results The NIH awarded a total of 56,169 grants in 2020, of which 2.0% (n=1,108) were allocated for COVID-19 research. The NIH had a $42 billion budget that year, of which 5.3% ($2.2 billion) was allocated to COVID-19 research. The most common clinical/scientific areas were social determinants of health (n=278, 8.5% of COVID-19 funding), immunology (n=211, 25.8%), and pharmaceutical interventions research (n=208, 47.6%). There were 104 grants studying COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions, of which 2 grants studied the efficacy of face masks and 6 studied the efficacy of social distancing. Of the 83 COVID-19 funded grants on transmission, 5 were awarded to study airborne transmission of COVID-19, and 2 grants on transmission of COVID-19 in schools. The average time from the funding opportunity announcement to the award notice date was 151 days (SD: ±57.9). Conclusion In the first year of the pandemic, the NIH diverted a small fraction of its budget to COVID-19 research. Future health emergencies will require research funding to pivot in a timely fashion and funding levels to be proportional to the anticipated burden of disease in the population.