CRES-taskforce
Covid-19 coronavirus [image by Laurence Pearl, Professor of Structural Biology]
The University set up a Covid-19 Research, Equipment and Services (CRES) taskforce to co-ordinate the University’s external response to the pandemic. The taskforce re-allocated £250,000 of Higher Education Innovation Funding to Covid-19-related research and other activities.
This generated a large response and resulted in a number of exciting, new, collaborative projects being commissioned, including the development of two types of Covid-19 tests, which are being taken forward by national research projects. Colleagues in the School of Life Sciences are working with Imperial College London on the highly influential modelling many of us are digesting in the news.
Alongside this, we have established a network of some 200 researchers, to encourage the development of interdisciplinary research bids.
In addition we have secured around 40 paid ‘virtual internships’ for SMEs and charities affected by Covid-19, developed a COVID ‘dashboard’ for the NHS and other local public authorities, are working with a local company to develop self sanitising surfaces to support the catering and leisure industry, and finally the development of a BSI-certified PVC reusable visor for health and care workers, which will be rolled out as a social enterprise to support commercial businesses to reopen.