CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is today issuing a new Call for Proposals inviting organizations around the world to apply for funding to speed up development, scale-up manufacturing capacity, and expand the geographical footprint of production of COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

 

The Call for Proposals will be open until at least 30 June 2020, with applications reviewed on a rolling basis every two weeks. 

It will support the rapid development of vaccines which could be available for licensure in 12-18 months or less, and increase the availability of vaccines for wide-spread global deployment.

 

The funding opportunity through this rolling Call is open worldwide, to all types of organisation: for-profit companies; non-profit organisations; international institutions and foundations; joint R&D ventures; government research organisations and other vaccine developers.

 

 

Before applying please read the full Call for Proposals text.

 

To respond to this Call for Proposals, entities must submit their application to CEPI via a secure portal. Please send an email to cfp@cepi.net to be provided with a secure link to upload your application to the secure portal (in the Subject field indicate: Application for COVID-19 vaccine). The application should be uploaded in a PDF format.

Billions of doses of vaccine are needed as soon as possible to bring the pandemic to an end around the world, so this Call has a particular emphasis on vaccine manufacturing capacity and the capabilities to deliver global development plans. Applicants will be required to demonstrate both their ability to rapidly develop their vaccine candidate, as well as manufacture it at scale.

 

Since January 2020 CEPI has acted at pace to establish a COVID-19 vaccine development portfolio comprising nine promising vaccine candidates, three of which are already in clinical testing. In parallel we have been closely monitoring the global vaccine development landscape with a view to enlarging our portfolio as and when resourcing allows.

 

This Call for Proposals aims to support organisations and partnerships to significantly accelerate the development and licensure of vaccines, as well as scale-up manufacturing capacity, and expand the footprint of vaccine production.  We therefore encourage Multi-National Companies (MNCs), companies in the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) and other vaccine/ biologic developers to apply.

 

Applications for funding are particularly welcome from organizations which already have resources to make a vaccine candidate available for a target region, and which need support from CEPI to expand global development plans, run large clinical trials, and/ or widen the geographical manufacturing footprint.

 

It is anticipated that vaccines funded under this Call for Proposals will be procured and allocated through global mechanisms now under discussion as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, an international initiative launched by the WHO and global leaders last month.