Third round of IVVN pump-priming funding awarded

09 Oct 2019

As part of our catalyst funding work, the IVVN awards pump-priming grants of up to £100,000. These grants are awarded to members for projects that aim to address a key bottleneck preventing the development of a vaccine.

The third call for applications to the scheme was announced at our annual meeting in London in January 2019, and applications closed in April 2019.

Following review of the applications by our panels, we are delighted to announce the three projects that have been awarded this round of grants.

The projects will involve 20 researchers working across five countries and will focus on vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease, Nairobi sheep disease and tilapia lake virus.

Projects funded in round three

Construction of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus-specific phage-display libraries and epitope identification for improved FMD vaccines generation

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most economically important livestock diseases in large parts of Africa, Asia and South America. The virus that causes it has a high mutation rate, making it difficult to vaccinate against new variants. This project aims to identify critical FMD virus antigens that can be used to produce improved vaccines.

Isolation and purification of Nairobi sheep disease virus for development of a thermostable vaccine

Nairobi sheep disease virus (NSDV) kills up to 90% of the sheep and goats it affects and is widespread in eastern Africa and the Indian subcontinent. This project aims to develop and test an inactivated virus vaccine to contribute towards the control and eradication of NSDV.

Immunisation of tilapia broodstock as a strategy to prevent vertical transmission of tilapia lake virus (TiLV)

Tilapia lake virus (TiLV) is an emerging disease problem in tilapia, the second most predominant aquaculture species after carp. This project will look at the feasibility of vaccinating tilapia broodstock and test whether they are able to pass specific antibodies to their embryos.

Congratulations to all the awardees!

You can read about all 10 projects that have been awarded our pump-priming grants here.

About the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network

The International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) is a community of veterinary vaccine specialists from around the world. We promote international collaboration on projects that address bottlenecks in the development of vaccines against animal diseases that impact societies in low- and middle-income countries. Our activities include providing a forum for researchers, awarding funding for collaborative projects, and training African researchers to run workshops in schools. We are funded by the UK government through the Global Challenges Research Fund.

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