Minister Harris welcomes investment in COVID-19 research
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From: Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
- Published on: 3 July 2020
- Last updated on: 11 April 2025
The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, has announced a €4.8m investment in a Trinity College Dublin-led research partnership through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to better understand COVID-19.
The project will be led by Trinity College and will include researchers from the University of Limerick and University College Dublin. International collaborators will also take part from the US, the Netherlands, France, Hong Kong and the UK.
The research will look to understand why some people are more susceptible to COVID-19 than others. The immunologists involved in this research hope to develop, validate and deploy rapid SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus) antibody testing in Ireland to identify previous infections in high-priority healthcare workers and in the general community.
Minister Harris welcomed the news.
“I congratulate all the researchers and clinicians for coming together, with the support of SFI and philanthropic and private sector organisations,” he said.
“This is of national importance given the immense societal and economic impact of the current pandemic and will enable us to contribute solutions to the challenges we face.”