Innovate UK
The Department of Health is to invest up to 35 million in projects to develop vaccines for 12 diseases with the potential to cause epidemics in low and middle-income countries.
Vaccines prevent millions of deaths worldwide every year. However, there is a strong need to develop new vaccines and develop the effectiveness of existing ones.
The 12 diseases identified as a priority by the UK Vaccine Network are chikungunya, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, ebola, hantavirus, lassa fever, Marburg virus, Middle East respiratory syndrome, nipah, plague, Q fever, Rift Valley fever, and zika.
Projects that could be supported include ones that:
- apply emerging or existing technologies in other areas of vaccinology
- test vaccine platforms in humans to improve existing strategies
- test proven animal vaccines to support use in humans
- develop vaccines for use in animal populations to prevent spread to humans
- develop improved vaccine delivery
- develop diagnostics that demonstrate safety
- develop vaccines that protect against multiple strains of a pathogen or multiple pathogens
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition organised by the Department of Health in partnership with Innovate UK.
Competition information
- the competition opens on 23 January 2017, and the deadline for registration is noon on 12 April 2017
- the competition is open to any organisation, and there must be a realistic route to exploitation
- funding will be in the form of fully funded development contracts
- we expect projects to last between 24 and 36 months
- individual contracts for clinical development up to and including phase IIb trials will be worth up to 3 million
- a briefing event for potential applicants will be held in January 2017