Background
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.
ARIA’s research in this space is focused on three technical areas:
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. Expected funding: 5 teams receiving £5m-£8m each.
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. Expected funding: 2 teams receiving £5m each.
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. Expected funding: 2 teams receiving £1m each.
Please read the call for proposals to find out what is in and out of scope for each area.
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ARIA invite applications from interdisciplinary teams bridging fields like synthetic biology, systems immunology, materials chemistry, and AI, as well as regulatory science, health economics, and science communication. We welcome applications from those at universities, research institutes, startups, and established companies, as well as from individuals. We encourage collaborative teams, but solo applicants are also invited to apply. Applicants can be based in the UK or abroad.
Join a team
We have a live teaming tool that allows applicants to find complementary expertise. After a quick registration, you can browse other researchers and request an introduction from the ARIA team to explore potential collaborations. Register for the teaming platform.
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ARIA expect projects within each TA to have the following durations and budgets, but are open to applications outside of these timeframes if reasonable.
TA1: 3–4.5 years, budget of £5m-£8m per team
TA2: 2–4 years, budget of £5m per team
TA3: 1–2 years, budget of £1m per team
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For full scope, please read the programme solicitation document from ARIA.
TA1 includes modulation of the body’s innate immune system at the epigenetic, genetic, protein or cellular population level. Approach that would be out of scope include traditional vaccines and antivirals.
TA2 could include datasets and modelling.
TA3 could include regulatory engagement, health economics, or science communication.
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ARIA have released a webinar for potential applicants which can be viewed on Vimeo.
If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, please use ARIA’s teaming tool in the first instance; you an also contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Health team.