In light of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the European Union has launched a new call for tenders titled “Clinical trial preparedness for filovirus outbreaks through the establishment of a pilot vaccine reserve”. The call’s objective is to establish preparedness strategies for preventing epidemics from emergent viruses on European territory through creating vaccine reserves. Thus, should cases emerge on European territory, the vaccine reserve can be rapidly mobilized and deployed for evaluation and ultimate use.

This call for tenders has a budget of €16 million over a 48-month period with a submission deadline set for 2 September 2026. To date, applicants are only required to ensure rapid deployment of experimental doses of vaccine candidates against filoviruses: Sudan Ebola (SUDV), Bundibugyo Ebola (BDBV) and Marburg (MARV). The projects should take vaccine candidates to Phase 2 trial readiness. The contract will be activated only under certain conditions, such as the occurrence of an epidemic outbreak and the express consent of theEuropean Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). It is the HaDEA agency that will be responsible for executing this call for tenders under the impetus and control of theHealth Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).

This call could also represent an opportunity for members of the European Vaccine Hub (EVH), which is in its deployment phase. Given the experience, research and development capabilities, as well as the partners and collaborators that the EVH has at its disposal, it should be able to propose vaccine candidates and plan from now on the production of clinical batches. This could be a real-world test that would allow this new organization to prove its responsiveness and capabilities.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has also recently launched a call (closes on 12 June 2026) to support the development of candidate vaccines against BDBV, through the accelerated generation of preclinical, translational and early clinical data. The call’s other wider aim is to also strengthen the longer-term filovirus vaccine pipeline (to have candidates at Phase 1 trial readiness). The clinical development of CEPI supported BDBV candidates, from a variety of vaccine platforms or delivery systems, is also being financed by the WHO.

CEPI's approach represents the “push” in the push-pull strategy to support vaccine development.Through "push" financing, CEPI seeks to help developers overcome the scientific and technical obstacles of bringing a vaccine candidate out of the laboratory and into human trials. Pull financing, such as providing investment in production capacity, even in the absence of commercial success guarantees, can potentially be obtained from organizations like Gavi.

The Ebola and Hantavirus outbreaks, following on from the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how the funding landscape continually adapts as new health emergencies arise.

Authors: Camille Maisse, Landry Cochard, Matthew Morgan