CEPI partners with University of Bergen to map vaccine development landscape

OSLO and Bergen, Norway, 5 May 2025 - CEPI is partnering with the University of Bergen to conduct critical research to map the development status of new vaccines against many of the world’s most dangerous viral threats. The analysis will inform CEPI’s vital vaccine development work, helping the Coalition to spot gaps in the vaccine development landscape and guiding its investments in vaccines, technologies and partnerships that could prevent future epidemics and pandemics.

Supported by CEPI funding of up to $ 1.5 million over three years, researchers at Norway’s University of Bergen will maintain an up-to-date overview of every vaccine candidate being developed around the globe for CEPI’s priority pathogens as well as other emerging viral threats identified by CEPI. This comprehensive mapping of the infectious disease vaccine pipeline will help CEPI to monitor and evaluate global R&D progress, and to spot gaps and opportunities to enhance its own portfolio of vaccines.

“Access to comprehensive data about the global vaccine development landscape is vital to the success of CEPI’s mission”, says CEPI’s Technical Office Lead Stig Tollefsen. “This new partnership with the University of Bergen will provide CEPI with greater visibility of the vaccine R&D pipeline around the world and help us to make well-informed choices when selecting and investing in new vaccine candidates and technologies.”

Prof. Rebecca Cox at the University of Bergen says that “the recent COVID-19 and influenza pandemics have shown us that our ability to rapidly develop, and deploy vaccines is critical for global health security. As new epidemic threats emerge, understanding where and how to invest in vaccine research and development is vital and we are delighted to partner with CEPI to conduct this important work for future pandemic preparedness.”

The University of Bergen has been spearheading research into influenza and coronavirus vaccines for many years, generating data that inform the global health community. The CEPI-funded research will build upon the existing expertise of the Bergen scientists to expand the mapping of vaccine landscapes for the most relevant pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential. The results will be published in open access journals for the benefit of the global scientific community. 

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Notes to Editors

About CEPI 

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need. CEPI has supported the development of more than 60 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens or a future Disease X. Central to CEPI’s pandemic-beating five-year plan for 2022-2026 is the ‘100 Days Mission’ to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days. Learn more at CEPI.net.  

About the Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen

The University of Bergen is an internationally recognised research university and the most cited university in Norway. The Influenza Centre, situated at the Department of Clinical Science, is a leading international centre in research, prevention and control of Influenza and Coronaviruses. The centre specialises in vaccine development and evaluation of licensed and novel vaccines and education of the next generation of respiratory virus scientists.

- Media contacts - 
 

CEPI

Email: [email protected] 
Telephone: +44 7387 055214

University of Bergen

Marion Solheim
Senior Advisor
University of Bergen
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +47 99 15 28 21

Rebecca Cox
Professor, Head of the Influenza Centre
University of Bergen
Email: [email protected]