As global health systems continue to grapple with the threat of emerging infectious diseases, foundational research into how pandemic-potential viruses replicate at the molecular level remains a critical gap in preparedness. A newly announced award is targeting exactly that gap.
Dr. Jeremy Keown, an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, has received funding through the Academy of Medical Sciences’ Springboard programme to investigate the molecular mechanisms of replication in viruses with pandemic potential. The grant is part of a broader £6.7 million investment across 55 early-career researchers in the UK, announced on April 15, 2026.
The Springboard programme, now in its eleventh year, funds researchers at a transitional stage of their careers — a point where securing commercial investment can be difficult but where discovery-driven science is often most consequential. Since 2015, the scheme has supported 471 researchers at 68 UK institutions, distributing more than £50.5 million in total. This year’s cohort is funded jointly by the UK Government, Wellcome, and the British Heart Foundation, covering research areas ranging from infectious disease to dementia and chronic pain.
Dr. Keown’s project centers on understanding precisely how certain viruses copy themselves inside host cells — a process that, if better characterized, could expose new molecular targets for antiviral drugs. His work is positioned as both a contribution to basic science and a practical step toward therapies that do not yet exist for a range of emerging viral threats.
The gap between identifying a novel viral threat and having deployable medical countermeasures has historically been measured in years; closing that gap depends on investments in precisely the type of discovery research this award supports.
Dr. Keown stated that the funding “will enable my group at Warwick to investigate how a potentially pandemic virus replicates at the molecular level and provide a foundation for the development of urgently needed antiviral therapies.”
Sources and further reading:
Warwick academic secures national funding to advance pandemic virus research – University of Warwick