Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Higher Education Commission(HEC) has finalized proposals from universities to award 10 Projects worth Rs. 150 Million for Research on COVID-19. In response to COVID-19 crisis, HEC launched a focused Rapid Research Grant (RRG) in April 2020 to engage academia in research around the clinical management of this epidemic, a press release said on Wednesday.
The grant is aimed to encourage academic research to strengthen clinical management or public health response against this virus. Under the specialised research initiative, potential project proposals were invited to contribute to the much-needed understanding of coronaviruses -the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and COVID-19.
Considering the time-crunch, a specialised panel was constituted and tasked to complete the shortlisting in 3-4 weeks. More than 300 applications were received for this grant. After independent reviews, 58 proposals were shortlisted based on already announced eligibility criteria and other necessary requirements.