As I recall, I believe it was the NIH indirectly funding the SAR’s gain of function research at University of Chappel Hill (prior to helping to fund the Wuhan lab) that included participation by several Wuhan University researchers as far back as 2015. It is likely Fauci knew about it.
It is certain that Fauci knew about it. Absolutely certain. While, strictly speaking, Fauci was the director of only one of the 27 separate institutes that make up NIH (specifically, NIAID), for decades Fauci had been the real "power behind throne" at NIH insofar as he controlled the purse strings connected to the big-money grants.
Fauci is no "scientist." Fauci is no "medical researcher." Fauci has a medical degree from way back when, but even a fairly smart chicken can get some sort of an M.D. if they put their back into it. But as it is, Fauci himself knows pretty much nothing about anything, as far as "the science" goes. The man knows no more about virology than I do, and I know nothing about it. Fauci only ever was a government bureaucrat who came to master the bureaucratic art of controlling government money. As a consequence, every real scientist, every real medical researcher, had to kiss his ring in order to get their opportunity to suck at the government teat.
As for "the science," Fauci was essentially the equivalent of a locker room jock sniffer. He wished for the respect and admiration of real scientists but, of course, could never obtain it, as he was never anything more than a colorless, talentless, ignorant hack. But since he came to control the money, everybody who wanted in had to kiss his ass.