Long Covid Research Funding: FOI release

Information requested

1. The total amount of research funding allocated by the Scottish Government to studies focused on adult Long Covid as of the date of this request.

2. The total amount of research funding allocated by the Scottish Government to studies focused on paediatric (children and adolescents; age 0-18) Long Covid as of the date of this request.

3. A breakdown of any current or past research projects related to Long Covid that specifies whether the research is focused on adults, children, or both, along with the corresponding funding amounts for each.

Response

1.The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports applied health research in Scotland including funding support through research grant and fellowship schemes. Information on funded projects is available on the CSO website under funded research Funded Research – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk). Under section 25(1) of FOISA we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

2. A breakdown of current or past research projects funded by CSO specifically related to Long Covid with information on whether the research focused on adults, children, or both, along with the corresponding funding amounts for each is in Table A below. Further information on the projects listed below in Tables A can be found on the CSO website under funded research Funded Research – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk).

3. Table A

CSO Reference	Funding awarded	Age Range
COV/LTE/20/04	£299,883	Unspecified
COV/LTE/20/06	£299,562	Adults (16 years and over)
COV/LTE/20/08	£239,358	Adults
COV/LTE/20/10	£286,660	Adults
COV/LTE/20/15	£189,659	Unspecified
COV/LTE/20/26	£290,941	Adults
COV/LTE/20/28	£295,201	Unspecified
COV/LTE/20/29	£296,545	Adults
COV/LTE/20/32	£294,605	Adults
HIPS/22/33	£297,000	Unspecified (includes young people)
HIPS/23/08	£296,960	Adults
NRS/24/N01	Exemption	Unspecified

4. From Table A above the total funding awarded by the Scottish Government for studies focused on Long Covid inclusive of adults was £3,086,374.

5. CSO has not funded research studies which focused exclusively on paediatric (children and adolescents; age 0-18) Long Covid.

6. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the funding awarded to NRS Career Researcher Fellowship, CSO reference NRS/24/N01 because an exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Further information out with the freedom of information request

7. During the pandemic CSO issued an open competitive call in 2020 for research relating specifically to longer-term effects of COVID-19. From this call, CSO funded nine projects to improve understanding of the long term effects of COVID-19 on physical and mental health and wellbeing in Scotland. These projects were awarded funding based on the recommendations of an independent panel of experts that reviewed all the applications received. The remit of the Long Term Effects of Covid call is at Applied Research on Longer-Term Effects of COVID-19 Infection – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

8. Since the long Covid Call the Scottish Government has not specifically allocated funding to Long Covid. This is because applications for research on Long COVID could be submitted to CSO’s standing broad-remit applied health research grant schemes that are open to applications for research covering the range of population health, clinical and NHS challenges, which had been paused for a time during the pandemic. Three of the grant awards listed in Table A (HIPS/22/33, HIPS/23/08, and NRS/24/N01) were funded through these schemes. Applications submitted to these schemes are reviewed by an independent expert committee. More detail on these funding schemes is at Grant Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk).

9. For completeness, Table B identifies projects funded very early in the pandemic before Long COVID was recognised that were not focussed on Long COVID that nonetheless have produced research findings of relevance to Long COVID. Further information 
on the projects listed below in Tables B can be found on the CSO website under funded research Funded Research – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk).

10. Table B

COV/DUN/20/04	£193,818	Unspecified
COV/GLA/20/05	£47,940	Adults
COV/QMU/20/04	£28,326	Unspecified

Annex A

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to [a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie salary and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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