Western University receives more than $400,000 for coronavirus research

Two projects at Western University will receive funding grants from the federal government aimed at enhancing coronavirus research across the country.

Faculty of Health Sciences professor Maxwell Smith received a grant worth more than $283,000 for his two-year project on examining the ethics of rapid research and development of coronavirus treatments and vaccines.

"We pitched that we would look back at how effectively we produced vaccines and therapies for the Ebola virus outbreak," Smith said. "We saw patients enrolled in clinical trials only a few months after research protocols were developed."

Smith will be looking at how clinical trials can be designed in an ethical manner, and what ethical ways participants can be recruited to take part in the trials.

"When we produce a new vaccine, there's a rush to get that out as quickly as possible," Smith said.

"Sometimes, those vaccines or therapies could go to places that are more privileged ... we want to make sure that we think of the interest of all of those that might be affected."

A number of post-secondary institutions and organizations around the world are collaborating with Smith on his research project including Huazhong University in Wuhan, China, and the Ministry of Health in Guinea.

Meanwhile, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry professor Anita Kothari and her team received $129,600 to develop an emergency response toolkit for public health agencies to use when providing timely and credible evidence-based information on social media.

Kothari will work with School of Nursing professor Lorie Donelle and Health Information Science PhD student Lindsay Foisey to gather social media interactions and messages from public health officials before and during the coronavirus outbreak.

"At the national level, there's an opportunity to develop some coordinated guidelines about developing emergency resources," Kothari said in a statement.

Ottawa announced Friday morning it would increase its spending on coronavirus research to $26.7 million, up from $7 million.

Funding is being provided through a number of research agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

A total of 47 research teams across Canada have been awarded funding under Friday's announcement.