Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support research into understanding the biological mechanisms of long term covid-19 symptoms.

Understanding the biological mechanisms of COVID-19 and its longer-term impacts is a priority topic in UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) research response. In partnership with National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UKRI has announced an £8.4 million project that will investigate the physical and mental health impacts of hospitalised patients. The Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 (PHOSP-COVID) study, led by Professor Chris Brightling from the University of Leicester, aims to recruit 8,000 patients from across the UK. This will make it one of the world’s largest studies into the long-term health consequences of COVID-19. Results from the study will inform the development of new and better measures to treat and rehabilitate patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

Additional supported work includes a £0.6 million award to Dr James Peters at Imperial College London for the mechanisms underlying the excessive inflammatory response developed in a subset of COVID-19 patients, and a £0.8 million award to Professor John Greenwood Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who will use magnetic resonance imaging to diagnose and understand cardiac injuries in COVID-19 patients. These awards were made through the UKRI-NIHR COVID-19 Rapid Response Rolling Call.