UK Vaccine Network - Epidemiology for Vaccinology Competition

The former Prime Minister established the UK Vaccine Network in June 2015 to ensure that the UK was at the forefront of the global fight against future disease outbreaks. The UK Vaccine Network has identified that alongside the need for Vaccine Products, there is also a need for the development of epidemiological models, and for tools and technologies to assist with the deployment and clinical trialling of vaccines in outbreak situations in low and middle income countries. The Department of Health and Social Care worked alongside the National Institute for Health Research to run a research competition to fund such research. The call was open to all eligible researchers that could demonstrate that their work was within the scope of the call and would positively support the welfare and economic development of countries on the OECD DAC list. The Department of Health and Social Care made up to £5 million available to run the competition and fund successful projects, under the provisions of the International Development Act 2002. Five successful projects have been awarded a research contract. This funding supports projects seeking to develop epidemiological models, tools and technologies to assist with the deployment and clinical trialling of vaccines in outbreak situations in low and middle income countries (LMICs) on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list. The call was split into two parts: (1) Optimal Deployment of Vaccines in Outbreak Situations, in which one project has been awarded a £1.5m research contract to develop rigorous models for how priority diseases could spread in an outbreak setting. Desired outcomes for this project are trial designs, methodologies and optimal approaches for how both unlicensed and licensed vaccines could be deployed to support response to an outbreak pathogen; and (2) Development of other tools, technologies and methodologies to assist epidemiological work in outbreak settings. Under this section four projects have been awarded a total of £2.7m. Desired outcomes for this work include the development of technologies that would assist with the epidemiological assessment and response to disease outbreaks. Publication of scientifically robust research results from all projects will also be encouraged. Populations of the low and middle income countries where outbreaks of the UK Vaccine Network 12 priority pathogens occur.