COVID-19 preclinical drug
development database

This database maps emerging COVID-19 preclinical drug development research across the UK. Our aim is to help researchers identify collaborations, share expertise, materials and methods, avoid duplicating effort and prioritise the most promising research.


The Academy of Medical Sciences is the independent body in the UK representing the diversity of medical science. Our mission is to promote medical science and its translation into benefits for society.


This database aims to enhance the UK's research response to COVID-19 by collating and sharing ongoing preclinical drug discovery and development research.

This project is supported by:

Academy of Medical Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences

Project Map

The ongoing national effort to find new treatments and technologies to treat COVID-19 involves preclinical COVID-19 research projects being conducted across the UK. This map shows the location of primary organisations running projects in the database. Browse the database to find projects near you.

FAQs

This online survey and database collates ongoing UK research projects developing potential new therapies for COVID-19. It focuses on preclinical stage therapies and the technologies supporting these therapies.


We hope this website will aid the COVID-19 research effort in several ways:

  • Connecting UK scientists with similar or complementary COVID-19 research efforts,
  • Helping researchers identify opportunities to share ideas expertise, methods and materials,
  • Increasing research efficiency by reducing duplication of effort and gaps in research,
  • Enabling policymakers and funding bodies, including the Academy, to make better strategic decisions for COVID-19 drug development research by providing an overview of the existing landscape.

We would encourage UK researchers from across both academia and industry to submit their research projects to the database. We are interested in collating information on two main types of research:

  • Preclinical drug discovery and development for COVID-19, covering all modalities, mechanisms of action and therapeutic targets.
  • Supporting technologies that will inform and support drug development, including the development of assays, cell models, animal models and specialist reagents.


We are not looking to map the following types of research projects:

  • Drug discovery and development of molecules that are in clinical trials, except where preclinical testing and development is ongoing to support clinical development and eventual licensing,
  • Research projects aiming to develop vaccines, rather than biological interventions to treat COVID-19,
  • Research projects that are not aiming to develop, or support the development of, medicines that can used against SARS-CoV-2 or to treat COVID-19,
  • Projects from outside the UK, except where they involve a UK collaborator, partner or funding body.


The Academy reserves the right to make the final decision for whether or not a project is relevant and so included in the database.

By submitting your research projects to the database you will be:

  • Demonstrating your willingness to be recognised as a national leader in the global research effort,
  • Creating new opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of materials and expertise to improve preclinical research efforts,
  • Supporting funding bodies and policymakers in their coordination of the UK’s research effort,
  • Informing the Academy and others’ ongoing work to support the national research response to the pandemic.


“We have found the database really useful in the past year to see what other sorts of preclinical COVID-19-related projects were out there. It has really helped when thinking about potential collaborators and project partner organisations.”

Dr Maria McPhillips, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.

This website is funded solely by the Academy of Medical Sciences through a core grant it receives annually from the UK Government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, to be used for policy, communications and public engagement. No other supporters or partnering organisations have contributed financially.

No. Many of the questions have purposefully been made optional. While we would encourage you to fill in as much detail as possible, we appreciate that there may be issues in disclosing certain information which may affect confidentiality or intellectual property.

The information you provide will be reviewed for relevance and published in the database, which is an open and public resource. The Academy’s privacy policy, which details how information will be handled and stored, can be found at: https://acmedsci.ac.uk/privacy-policy

The Academy is committed to keeping this database updated throughout the COVID-19 research effort. Beyond this, we may continue to host the information as an enduring resource for information purpose, but it may not be regularly updated. Each submission in the database features a timestamp indicating when it was submitted and last updated.

There are two ways to update a previously submitted entry. If you want to make significant changes, we recommend that you resubmit the form and then inform Academy staff who will remove your older, outdated entry. If you want to make only minor changes, please contact policy@acmedsci.ac.uk with your updates and Academy staff will update your existing entry.

Yes. There are a number of other initiatives who would like to hear from researchers working on preclinical drug discovery and development for COVID-19.


To help move preclinical COVID-19 projects closer to patients, researchers can also engage with the new Advise & Connect service provided by LifeArc. The Advise & Connect programme is open to early-stage medical research projects that could help tackle the long-term health challenges of COVID-19 and prepare for future viral outbreaks, focusing on four specific areas: drugs, diagnostics, devices and AI/digital health. LifeArc offers free expert advice and guidance, access to a network of industrial, business, and academic partners, and the opportunity to apply for an Innovation Award of up to £20,000 to catapult the translation of COVID-19 pre-clinical projects down the development pipeline.


The Department of Health and Social Care and UK Research & Innovation have convened the UK COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel (UK-CTAP) to oversee the identification, development and deployment of safe and effective treatments for COVID-19. Researchers with potential treatments are requested to submit details of their projects directly to the UK-CTAP who will advise on what treatments should be proposed for testing through the RECOVERY+ trial.


Diamond have created the COVID-19 protein portal to help researchers identify and obtain research materials.


The Institute for Cancer Research have developed the canSAR Coronavirus Discovery resource to support researchers looking to conduct COVID-19 research.


Open Targets have produced a COVID-19 Target Prioritisation Tool an interactive, open source portal that integrates a number of key public datasets and publications to support exploration of host and viral targets, and potential treatments.

Please sign up to our dedicated newsletter using the form below to receive frequent updates on submitted projects and other work the Academy is doing on COVID-19 research.

If you're a member of the public and are interested in COVID-19 studies and clinical trials, check out the National Institute of Health Research’s Be Part of Research website: https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/ . This offers more information on ongoing COVID-19 studies that are looking for volunteers and has more information on how to get involved. 


If you're a policy professional or work for an organisation interested in the Academy's work on COVID-19 research, please feel free to get in touch with us at policy@acmedsci.ac.uk.

This database is not intended to be used as a direct source of evidence for the efficacy or effectiveness of any COVID-19 therapies. The presence of a project or drug on the database does not mean that the Academy directly supports this research effort. This database is designed only to inform the research community of ongoing research efforts to develop new medicines for COVID-19.


The Academy cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of any information submitted to the database. All records indicate the date that entries were submitted or last updated.