CEPI FA2 Preclinical Development Award

CEPI FA2 Exploratory Award

Funds organizations designing and early-stage testing of new vaccine candidates against CEPI priority pathogens and Disease X viral families, with awards up to $1M over 18 months.

Eligibility · Global (all countries eligible; Global South applicants encouraged)

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), a non-profit international association headquartered in Oslo, administers the Exploratory Award under its Innovations to Prepare for Future Epidemics and Pandemics call — Focus Area 2. The award is a grant of up to US $1 million over a maximum of 18 months, with no stated minimum and no cost-share requirement in the source text. CEPI funds all eligible costs directly; there is no matching requirement mentioned.

The award supports the design and early-stage testing of new vaccine candidates against CEPI priority pathogens: Lassa Fever, and Disease X exemplar vaccines spanning paramyxoviruses, arenaviruses, coronaviruses (non-ACE-2 binding Sarbecoviruses with human spillover potential), phenuiviruses, and nairoviruses. Eligible activities include immunogen design, candidate characterization studies, and immunogenicity studies.

Eligibility is broad: for-profit companies, nonprofits, universities, research organizations, and government bodies may all apply. There is no citizenship or incorporation-country requirement stated. Global South applicants are specifically encouraged to apply; for Lassa Fever grants, preference is given to groups based in endemic regions in West Africa or with plans to conduct clinical evaluation there.

Applications were accepted on rolling quarterly deadlines from 24 October 2023 through 13 April 2026 at 23:59 CET. No future deadlines beyond 13 April 2026 are announced in the source. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact CEPI at innovations.cfp@cepi.net before submitting to confirm alignment with current portfolio priorities. Applications are submitted by email to that address. Review and evaluation process details and scoring criteria weights are not published in the source text.

Key caution: the rolling call window ended 13 April 2026. No successor call is announced in the source. Applicants should contact CEPI directly to ask whether a new call is open before investing time in an application.