Long COVID in children and young people

Action recently called for project grant outline applications on community-acquired long COVID in children for an award of circa £100,000.

The deadline for submission of outline applications has now closed.

The aim of the charity is to prevent and treat disease and disability by funding vital medical research in hospitals or research institutions across the UK. There is a gap in our understanding of the prevalence, pathological mechanism and mental health consequences of community-acquired long COVID in children and young people. 

The call has a focus on the following two areas:

1. Better understanding the pathophysiological nature of community-acquired long COVID in children/young people. There is a need to understand why some children get long COVID after community-acquired infection and others don’t. This could include genomic and biomarker studies to characterise the inflammatory response or structural impact in brain (e.g., MRI).
    
2. Addressing the mental health complications for children and young people with community-acquired long COVID. For example, a trial or proof of principle of modular, online, easily accessible ‘talking therapies’.

There is the option of applying for pilot funding for hypothesis generation or generation of preliminary data towards a future application to a larger funder.

Age range: For this call the remit covers children and young people (CYP) up to the age of 25 years. Projects covering the age range of 0-11 years are encouraged. Projects must feature CYP at the centre of the research.

Call type: Response mode.

Project type: Researchers should address unmet need and clarify how research can make a novel advance with impact to our understanding of paediatric disease, diagnosis, treatment and/or health system policy. Proposed add-ons to funded larger studies focused on children and young people may be accepted but must show clear added value. There is the option of applying for pilot funding for hypothesis generation or generation of preliminary data towards a future application to a larger funder.

Project location: Hospitals, universities and research institutions across the UK. Funding is for UK based research but teams can collaborate with EU and International groups and studies.

Project length: 6 to 36 months. The project needs to be feasible within 36 months.

Time to clinical impact: Our emphasis is on clinical research or research at the interface between clinical and basic science. Projects should have a short to medium term clinical impact, alongside this there could be longer term understanding of biology and/or lessons for future pandemics.

Funding range: The award level is expected to be circa £100,000. Applications for lower amounts are welcome. The total available for the round is circa £100,000.

Assessment of applications: There will be an initial outline application form (expression of interest). Applicants should submit these as soon as possible after seeing the call and by 27 August 2021. As part of this outline, applicants will need to provide a clear explanation how their project matches the criteria for the call and show how the proposal adds to and fits with existing national/international efforts. Clinical trial proposals will need show understanding of the current landscape and other trials underway. Research teams will need to have the relevant experience to complete the work. Invited applicants will need to complete a full application form. Peer review will be through a bespoke expert review panel, with additional external peer review for full applications.

Further guidelines and exclusions: A research team can only apply for one grant per round. The principal investigator (PI) should be employed in a permanent position in a UK university or institution. Fixed term employees on a long term contract may be eligible to be a PI, providing their employment extends at least six months beyond the duration of the proposed project and the host research institution supports the individual and the project.

Applicants should also read Action's overall project grant guidelines and exclusions before applying. The outline application form is available on the project grant guidelines page, see below.

Outline application deadline: 27 August 2021

Invited full application deadline:  12 October 2021 by 5pm

Likely decisions available: December 2021