SARS-CoV-2 sequencing grants reflection

This extensive two-year project examined Wellcome’s strategic investment in pathogen genomic sequencing during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how emergency research funding can be most effective in future public health emergencies.

The aims of this work were threefold: to understand the complete pathway from sample collection, sample sequencing and data analysis to policy uptake; to uncover hidden processes and pressures affecting research teams during emergencies; and to identify practical solutions for context-specific challenges faced by researchers across diverse global and institutional settings.

The methodology involved a thorough consultation which was conducted between August 2023 and January 2025. During this time, we engaged with eight Wellcome-funded projects through interviews with 125 participants, focus groups, and online surveys. Our engagement spanned multiple regions including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, with a mixture of in-person lab visits and online calls.

The review was conducted in two phases. After the first pilot phase, we held an emerging findings meeting with Wellcome to highlight initial outcomes of the pilot and to shape the next phase of the consultation. The final outputs from the completed project included: a comprehensive final report with detailed findings across five key themes (funding design, infrastructure, team capacity, data sharing, and research uptake); an executive summary highlighting key barriers and enablers at each stage of the genomic sequencing pipeline; actionable recommendations for research funders organized by theme; and visual landscape maps illustrating stakeholder relationships and information flows for each funded project.

We also shared the findings at an in-person workshop with Wellcome and supported the development of social media messages and blog posts to share the key messages to other funders and the wider research community.