U of I

WASHINGTON (WAND) - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help fund COVID-19 related research. 

UIUC's  five programs that have been researching will be awarded $682,662. The grants are part of NSF's Rapid Response Research program, which enables the agency to quickly process and award research that addresses an urgent need like COVID-19. Three of the grants specifically are aimed at shortening the amount of time it takes to process COVID-19 tests. The funding is part of the CARES Act that Congressman Davis voted for and President Trump signed into law in March.

“These NSF awards are being put into action quickly by the University of Illinois for important coronavirus research to decrease test result times,” U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill) said. “Testing is a key component to getting America reopened. We've taken great strides to increase testing capacity and with NSF-sponsored research like this that process will only improve going forward." 

"I’m incredibly proud of how members of the Urbana research community have stepped up to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, launching countless initiatives to explore new ways to treat, analyze, and cope with the virus," said Susan Martinis, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "These NSF RAPID program grants are a great example of our leadership in advancing virus testing methods.”

To find out more about UIUC's project, click here. 

To see all the grants awarded see below: