SBRI: vaccines for global epidemics preclinical stage 2 development

Key Features

Organisations that were awarded funding during Stage 1 can apply for a share of £15 million (including VAT) to develop vaccine candidates and technologies in line with UK Vaccine Network priorities.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £15 million

Opens: 11th Jun 2018

Closes: 27th Jun 2018

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will invest up to £15 million to support the further development of vaccine:

  • candidates
  • platform technology
  • manufacturing technologies

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support projects looking to develop vaccines, vaccine platform technologies and manufacturing technologies. These must provide an effective, rapid response during future outbreaks of the following pathogens:

  1. Chikungunya
  2. Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever
  3. Ebola
  4. Hantavirus
  5. Lassa
  6. Marburg
  7. Middle East respiratory syndrome
  8. Nipah
  9. Plague
  10. Q fever
  11. Rift valley fever
  12. Zika

Your products must:

  • be primarily for the benefit of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
  • target human diseases with epidemic potential identified by the UK Vaccine Network, listed above.

Innovate UK will support aspects of vaccine candidate development at the preclinical stage. These include, but are not limited to:

  • developing master seed banks
  • vaccine characterisation, formulation and adjuvanticity
  • proof of concept ‘in vivo’ studies
  • animal toxicology studies
  • process finalisation

Process finalisation involves moving from engineering batches to GxP (good manufacturing and/or laboratory practice) activities (such as manufacturing and regulatory safety, pharmacology and toxicology studies). These will support the authorisation of future clinical trials.

Innovate UK are also interested in supporting early clinical development if the innovation has reached this stage from its stage one activities.

Your proposal must focus on:

  • ease and speed of manufacture
  • ease of use in low and middle income countries
  • temperature stability
  • vaccines that require a single dose or a low number of boosts
  • length of protection
  • serologic markers of efficacy
  • biomarkers or correlates of vaccine safety

Eligibility

To lead a project, you must have been awarded funding in the first vaccines for global epidemics preclinical competition, which opened on 17 October 2016. You can work alone or with others from business, the research base or the third sector as subcontractors.

Your application must assign at least 50% of the contract value directly and exclusively to research and development (R&D) services. R&D can cover solution exploration and design. It can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service.

R&D does not include:

  • commercial development activities such as quantity production
  • supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs
  • integration, customisation or incremental adaptations and improvements to existing products or processes

Project Costs

Total project costs can be up to £2 million, including VAT. It must start by 1 September 2018 and can last up to 2 years.

Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund projects that cover:

  • new agents or technologies not related to the 12 priority diseases
  • the discovery of new immunisation agents
  • the development of animal disease agents with no impact on human health
  • innovations not funded in the previous competition