MIDAS COVID-19 Urgent Grant Program

About

The MIDAS COVID-19 Urgent Grant Program is made possible through NIGMS supplemental funding to the MCC. The goal of the COVID-19 Urgent Grant Program is to rapidly provide funds to researchers in the MIDAS network to accelerate the development of models of COVID-19 spread and the impact of possible public health interventions. Two types of awards are funded: Supplemental funding and New Initiative funding.

This grant program would not be possible without the help from our reviewers. We would like to thank them for their participation in this process.

New Initiative Funding

New Initiative funding provides MIDAS investigators with up to $100,000 for a new research project. The awards support projects that add new data or outcomes to COVID-19 modeling research, or that address gaps in the existing COVID-19 modeling landscape. Five projects were awarded on October 7, 2020.

Awards

Transmission and severity of SARS-CoV-2 in India

Principal Investigator:

Joseph Lewnard

University of California, Berkeley

Sero-epidemiological modeling for COVID-19 control

Principal Investigator:

Isabel Rodríguez-Barraquer

University of California, San Francisco

Model-informed vaccine prioritization strategies

Principal Investigator:

Daniel Larremore

University of Colorado Boulder

Design of cost-effective COVID-19 surveillance

Principal Investigator:

Jaline Gerardin

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Aggregating computational models and human judgment for more accurate forecasts of the US COVID-19 outbreak

Principal Investigator:

Thomas McAndrew

Lehigh University

Funding Panel

Reviewers on the New Initiatives Funding Panel first reviewed letters of intent. Each letter was thoroughly reviewed by three panelists. The first panel meeting discussed each letter and gave scores to each proposal which were averaged to determine the second round of applicants. During the second round, full proposals were reviewed and given scores based on thorough review of the proposals and a final discussion between all panelists.

Reviewers

Aditya Khanna

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Brown University

Alex Perkins

Associate Professor
University of Notre Dame

Angel Paternina-Caicedo

Professor
Universidad del Sinu

Anthony O’Hare

Lecturer
University of Stirling

Bogdan Epureanu

Professor
University of Michigan

Casey Cazer

Assistant Professor
Cornell University

Cecile Viboud

Staff Scientist
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Daniel A. M. Villela

Department Head
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz

Donald Burke

Distinguished University Professor of Health Science and Policy
University of Pittsburgh

Dylan George

Director – Operations
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Elizabeth Lee

Research Associate
Johns Hopkins University

Jai Prakash Tripathi

Assistant Professor
Central University of Rajasthan

Jeanine Buchanich

Reseach Associate Professor
University of Pittsburgh

Laura White

Professor
Boston University

Lin Wang

Research Associate
University of Cambridge

Michal Ben-Nun

Research Scientist
Predictive Science Inc.

Morgane Rolland

Chief
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Sen Pei

Assistant Professor
Columbia University

Srinivasan Venkatramanan

Research Scientist
University of Virginia

Tiffany Bogich

Postdoc
Penn State University

Ziteng Wang

Assistant Professor
Northern Illinois University

Supplemental Funding for Ongoing Work

MIDAS members may request up to $10,000 in total funds to supplement ongoing COVID-19 research. No pre-existing grant funding needs to be in place for these awards. Supplemental funding may be requested to cover publication costs, equipment, student salaries, or other small-scale cost in support of ongoing COVID-19 modeling research. Two projects were awarded on September 15, and a further three projects were awarded on December 21, 2020. The final two projects were awarded on March 5, 2021.

Funding Panel

Reviewers on the Supplemental Funding Panel reviewed applications and gave scores based on proposal significance; the investigators’ ability to carry out the study; the approach and methods; and the relevance for COVID-19. Studies were then discussed by the reviewers, where overall scores were determined by an anonymous poll. Subsequent rounds of Supplemental Funding applications were reviewed by the MIDAS Coordination Center.