The funding will support eight projects targeting diseases including Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, plague, Nipah virus, chikungunya and Mayaro. The projects will focus on developing promising vaccines, advancing clinical trials and creating technologies that could make vaccine design and manufacture faster and more effective.
Delivered through Innovate UK and supported by the UK Vaccine Network, the programme is designed to strengthen the UK's ability to develop, test and deploy vaccines rapidly when new outbreaks emerge. It will also support vaccine development and access in low- and middle-income countries, where infectious disease outbreaks can have a particularly severe impact.
The government said investing before an outbreak occurs could reduce response times and strengthen resilience against future health emergencies.
The programme has previously supported the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, demonstrating the potential value of preparing vaccine technologies before a pandemic takes hold.
Health Minister for Science, Innovation and Investment Chris McDonald said: 'The world remains at risk from new and re-emerging infectious diseases, and outbreaks overseas can quickly become threats to people here at home.
'This £33.2 million investment will back leading scientists to develop and deploy vaccines faster and strengthen our pandemic preparedness while supporting our world-leading life sciences sector.
'By investing before a crisis hits, we can better protect the public, save lives and ensure the UK is ready to respond to future threats.'
The need for continued research has been highlighted by recent outbreaks of serious infectious diseases. Ebola has an average case-fatality rate of around 50%, while Marburg outbreaks were reported in Rwanda in 2024 and Tanzania in 2025. There is currently no approved Marburg vaccine or antiviral treatment.
The government also pointed to recent reports of a suspected pneumonic plague case linked to a laboratory worker's death in Russia's Irkutsk region, where almost 200 contacts were reportedly placed under precautionary medical observation.
The eight new projects will build research, clinical trial and technical capacity so vaccines can be developed and manufactured at speed when new threats emerge.
Ministers said the investment would help ensure vaccines are affordable and accessible in countries most at risk, while reducing the potential for overseas outbreaks to develop into wider international threats.
The funding reflects a shift towards preparing for future pandemics before they occur, rather than relying solely on emergency responses once an outbreak is already under way.
Chief Medical Officer for England Professor Sir Chris Whitty said: 'These projects aim to prevent some of the most dangerous infectious diseases in the world today.
'The development of safe and effective vaccines for these diseases will strengthen our ability to protect people around the world.'
