Pandemic preparedness included in research grants call from pharmaceutical giant
Top tips
- Prioritise innovation over career experience, so strong ideas with detailed scientific rationale stand the best chance of success.
- Put timelines and milestones in your proposal to demonstrate how you will execute the project.
- Budgeting is crucial—include clear outlines of spending and overhead costs.
- Pandemic preparedness projects do not have to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
The German multinational pharmaceutical company Merck offers grants of up to €500,000 (£450,000) per year for external research projects. Open to researchers in any country and at any career stage, the company chose drug discovery, cultured meat and machine learning for the 2020 round, but added an additional call for projects on pandemic preparedness.