The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has issued a grant opportunity to fund research activities leading to the development of new and improved vaccines and related products and technologies to combat infectious diseases of importance in India, the U.S., the South Asian region and globally.
Applications are encouraged from organizations that propose to conduct vaccine-related research through U.S.-Indo collaborations on the following: dengue, influenza (including avian influenza), malaria, enteric diseases, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. Basic, translational, clinical, or epidemiological vaccine research may be proposed.
Special initiatives have been undertaken over the years in an effort to advance cooperation with India more rapidly and effectively in some areas, and cooperation in the health sciences has been particularly prominent. One of the most important and successful of these has been the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program (VAP), a jointly administered and funded bilateral vaccine research program, which has supported approximately 60 collaborative research projects since its inception in 1987.
“The continued work of the VAP program is an important recognition that vaccines are among the most cost-effective of health technologies and their widespread use in both countries is key to controlling the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases,” states the announcement. “With the emergence of new infectious diseases and increasing attention to health programs which promote child survival, there is renewed interest in attacking this important category of diseases across the full spectrum of scientific, medical and public health disciplines.”
While applicants should provide evidence of ongoing or proposed scientific collaborations specific to the research proposed in the grant application, this initiative will not require joint application, review and funding of applications by the U.S. and India as was required in previous VAP-supported research projects. Standard NIH/NIAID application and review procedures will be followed.
Basic, translational, clinical, or epidemiological vaccine research may be proposed under this program. Further details are available at the National Institutes of Health grants website under: PA-13-179.
