OREANDA-NEWS. UK researchers creating new vaccines for epidemic diseases such as Zika and Ebola are among the winners of £22 million of funding, announced by the Department of Health today (18 November 2016).

The funding will be shared among 26 vaccine development projects. These projects will be the first to benefit from the UK Vaccine Network £120 million fund, launched last year to support Britain’s world-leading role fighting deadly diseases.

As part of the fund, the Department is also launching a further 2 competitions, worth £60 million, to give academics and scientists the opportunity to apply for financial support. This scale of investment means the UK is the second largest funder of research in this field.

The money supports targeted investments in vaccines for diseases with epidemic potential including projects working to prevent Ebola, Zika and Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever.

The government is also supporting 4 projects – worth £2.4 million combined – to develop successful prevention vaccines for diseases which are bioterror threats, such as Plague and Q Fever.

Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said: "The sobering reality is that infectious diseases do not respect borders; this was made all too clear during the outbreaks of Ebola and Zika. Our brave UK experts led the emergency response in Sierra Leone and now we continue to lead both the fight against deadly diseases and in protecting the public. Last week, we announced our ability to deploy experts anywhere in the world within 48 hours of an outbreak and this week we are helping some our best scientists get potentially life-saving vaccines off the ground. The race to create new vaccines is on and I want the UK to win it".

The UK Vaccine Network brings together leading figures from industry, academia and philanthropy, including the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, the Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Professor Adrian Hill, Director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, said: "These awards support the critical early stage of vaccine design and development for diseases that could cause very serious outbreaks. Creating a successful vaccine takes a lot of hard work and scientific research. The best way to create a vaccine is to test a range to ensure they are safe and then introduce them to clinical trials. This money will support this work and bring a new exciting range of vaccine technologies to use against diseases such as Zika for the first time".