This one-off funding call will support research teams to establish or validate correlates of protection across 11 diseases with the potential to cause substantial outbreaks or which have significant burden, and have no licenced vaccines. Having a range of reliable metrics to predict vaccine efficacy will support effective vaccine development, especially in low resource settings.
By jointly funding this call, Wellcome and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) want to address the barriers currently hampering the discovery and validation of reliable correlates of protection. With this call, the aim is to support coordination and collaboration between stakeholders across vaccine development to generate these robust datasets and expand the list of correlates of protection available for vaccine development. The funded research will generate data packages that can support decision-making in vaccine development, including those needed for licensure.
Eligibility: You can apply to this scheme if you are a research team that:
- Demonstrates transdisciplinary expertise in immunology, vaccinology, statistics and data analysis, and experience of preclinical (where relevant) and clinical vaccine development.
- Includes at least one applicant with expertise in biomarker discovery or validation to inform clinical go/no-go decisions (or licensure applications).
- Shows expertise in monitoring vaccine-induced immune responses.
- Is led or co-led by an applicant hosted at an institution in a country affected by one of the diseases in scope. Note that if the proposal has a co-lead, they should be listed as a coapplicant and their role as a co-lead should be stated in the narrative part of the proposal. Only one institution, the administering organisation of the Lead Applicant, will receive funds for onward distribution.
- Can demonstrate commitment to engaging with National Regulatory Authorities to ensure the data you are generating would be considered acceptable as part of a licensure package.
- Can demonstrate commitment to building collaborations with stakeholders within your disease field to agree a consistent approach for data analysis. Demonstration of commitment could include clear, detailed examples of past work, or letters of support.
- If applying for viral diseases, are prepared to consider collaboration and synergies with CEPIs other established network partners (for example, Animal Network or Centralized Network).
- Promotes a diverse, inclusive and supportive research environment.
- Can prove willingness to share samples and assays with collaborating partners. Assays and reagents should be made globally available.
Level of funding: Up to £5 million over a period of up to 3 years
Additional information: Please note that different eligibility criteria applies to lead applicants, co-applicants, and collaborators, all of which are found here.
Key dates
- 06 February 2024: preliminary applications close at 17:00 pm GMT
- 21 May 2024: full application deadline