COVID-19 support for AMRC members and supporters
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is being felt across the breadth of our health system and beyond. We know that this is a deeply challenging time for our members and supporters. Our live blog is regularly updated to help you stay on top of what’s happening across the sector and to provide support and signposts to key guidance as it’s issued. Many of you have joined our online chat group to share your information, questions and concerns about COVID-19. Thank you to all who answered our call for help to create an evidence base for Government showing how charity funded research is being impacted. Once we have analysed the survey results, we will be able to share some top line information.

AMRC's first ever virtual event
On Tuesday 24 March, we held our first ever virtual workshop on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in research. During the first part of the day, we explored current progress on EDI within research, why diversity in research matters and how we can build it into research. In the afternoon sessions, we discussed what tools we need for change, what mistakes were made and learned from, and top tips on how we can improve and promote EDI. Attendees were provided with the opportunity to ask speakers questions via Q&A and were able to chat with other delegates.

New AMRC supporter trustee
Following a successful election process, we're thrilled to announce that our supporter members have voted Dr Doug Brown, CEO of the British Society of Immunology to represent them on the AMRC Executive Council. He has 20 years of experience across academia, medical research charities and learned societies. Members may remember Doug from his time at the Alzheimer’s Society where he was Chief Policy and Research Officer until 2018.

UKRI CEO writes to research community regarding COVID-19
Professor Sir Mark Walport - CEO of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) - has written an open letter to the research community outlining how UKRI is supporting researchers, universities and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. He summarises UKRI's refocused activities, including £20 million announced for COVID-19 research grants and ongoing work with government to improve sustainability of funding. The letter also announces UKRI's new coronavirus Hub, a single web portal allowing fast-tracked COVID-19 research applications and providing guidance for researchers wanting to repurpose their grant funds for COVID-19.

Charities pull together in #EveryDayCounts campaign
Charities across the country are facing imminent collapse as fundraising income dries up, charity leaders warned. Charities have joined up in the #EveryDayCounts campaign and have pressed for urgent support from the Government to help voluntary organisations survive and carry on playing its crucial role both during the pandemic and afterwards when the country picks up the pieces. Gemma Peters, CEO of Blood Cancer UK wrote a frank article for the Sunday Times highlighting the issues.

NIHR prioritises research to address COVID-19
NIHR have published a statement on the national process to prioritise COVID-19 research. Urgent public health research is being prioritised to gather the necessary clinical and epidemiological evidence that will inform national policy and enable new diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines to be developed and tested for COVID-19. Details on the process and the new single point of entry for prioritising COVID-19 studies can be found here.

F1000 Research sets up the publishing platform for the European Commission
The European Commission announced plans to launch their own open access publishing platform in early 2021 for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe beneficiaries. The platform will be developed by F1000 Research Ltd, the company behind AMRC Open Research, Wellcome Open Research and other funder led publishing platforms. This platform will play a key role in helping the European Commission achieve full open access to all the research it has supported and will be crucial in shifting research culture across Europe.