ARIA’s “Sustained Viral Resilience” programme seeks to create a new class of medicines that provide durable, broad-spectrum protection against respiratory viruses by engineering the innate immune system. A call for proposals is now open, with concept papers due by 10 November 2025 and full proposals by 22 January 2026.
Programme overview
Today’s major viral threats are moving or unknown targets. Flu mutates every year, HIV is extremely genetically diverse, and the next pandemic virus is hard to predict. Vaccines dramatically reduced disease burden in the 20th century, but they fail to keep pace with the challenges today’s viruses present. To address this, we need a new class of medicines that can target viral infections with far greater precision, accuracy, and durability. That’s what this programme aims to unlock, by engineering the body’s innate immune system to create what we’re calling ‘sustained innate immunoprophylactics’ (SIIPs). SIIPs will provide durable, wide-ranging protection against respiratory viruses, opening an entirely new paradigm in our ability to combat viral disease.
This programme is split into three Technical Areas, each with its own distinct objective:
- TA1, Explorers: focused on providing proof-of-concept evidence that sustained innate immunoprophylactics (SIIPs) are possible by designing, building and testing candidates in in vitro and in vivo models.
- TA2, Accelerators: focused on developing tools, platforms, models, standards, or datasets in order to accelerate the process of bringing new SIIP candidates to strong proof-of-concept.
- TA3, Translators: focused on conducting research that facilitates the clinical translation and future commercialisation of SIIPs, ultimately smoothing the pathway from technical proof-of-concept to real-world impact.
ARIA are inviting concept papers from interdisciplinary individuals and teams with backgrounds in immunology, synthetic biology, AI, materials chemistry, and similar fields. For TA3 Translators, we’d like to receive concept papers from those working in regulatory science, health economics, science communication, and related fields. Your institutional background isn’t important; whether you’re from a startup, university lab, established company, or public research institute, we’re keen to hear your ideas.
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ARIA welcome proposals from scientists and engineers at universities, research institutes, startups, and established companies, as well as from individuals. Applicants can be based in the UK or abroad.
ARIA encourage collaborative teams, but solo applicants are also invited to apply and ARIA have provided a teaming tool, allowing applicants to find complementary expertise that address multiple TAs. After a quick registration, you can browse other researchers and request an introduction from the ARIA team to explore potential collaborations. There will also be an in-person teaming event on Thursday 23 October (bookings have now closed).
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TA1, Explorers: building and demonstrating safe and effective prophylaxis against respiratory viruses. £34m total funding, expected to fund 5 teams with £5m-8m per project, lasting 3-4.5 years.
TA2, Accelerators: accelerating the process of bringing new SIIP candidates
to strong proof-of-concept. £10m total funding, expected to fund 2 teams with £5m per project, lasting 2-4 years.TA3, Translators: research that broadly facilitates the clinical translation and future
commercialisation of SIIPs. £2m total funding, expected to fund 2 teams with £1m per project, lasting 1-2 years. -
ARIA will be holding a supporting FAQ webinar on Thursday 22 October, 4pm.
Clarification questions can be submitted using the chat function on ARIA’s website. You can contact ARIA at accessibility@aria.org.uk if you need help or have any further questions.