The Pirbright Institute has joined with The Roslin Institute to launch an International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) following their successful £2.1m joint funding bid.
Grant funded by the Medical Research Council* and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the new international network will aim to facilitate interaction and collaboration between a range of partners across science and industry in the UK and globally. It will support the development of new vaccines for a variety of high-consequence livestock diseases, many of which affect farmers in low and middle income countries especially hard.
Dr Bryan Charleston, Director of The Pirbright Institute, who co-led the grant application said, “Personal experience has shown me that groups who collaborate tend to be more successful. The IVVN will enable us to pool our expertise and knowledge with partners around the world; helping us generate and share insights which I hope will facilitate the development of new and improved vaccines for devastating livestock diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease.
“We have already attracted over 20 international members including research bodies, academia and industry and I look forward to working with closely with them and our partners at The Roslin Institute as we work to grow and develop the network further.”
*The grant number for this project is MR/R005958/1.