This program is funded under CEPI's 2021 call for proposals to accelerate the development of broadly protective coronavirus vaccines, which will provide up to US$200 million for such projects. Intravacc was awarded $4.8 million to advance their subunit vaccine candidate "Avacc 101", which is designed for intranasal delivery to provide protective immunity for multiple betacoronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV. Avacc 101 uses Intravacc's Outer Membrane Vesicle (OMV) technology to deliver vaccine payloads for an effective immune response.

As a subgrantee on the project, EpiVax will identify cross-reactive beta-coronavirus T cell epitopes for broad coverage of COVID-19, MERS and SARS Class 1 and Class 2 HLA-restricted epitopes, using the iVAX in silico vaccine design toolkit. In addition to vaccine epitope selection, EpiVax will also develop multiple designs, and will validate these in silico constructs in vivo with HLA-transgenic mice.

According to EpiVax CEO/CSO Dr. Annie De Groot, "We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to apply our advanced vaccine design tools to a problem of global significance.".