The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has announced up to US$8.2 million in additional funding to support the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)’s hub-and-spoke clinical trial model in West Africa.
The funding, announced at a 22 October 2026 launch event in Accra convened by Africa CDC, the African Medicines Agency, WHO AFRO and CEPI, will go to the Technical Coordinating Partners leading the West Africa component: the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM (MRCG).
The hub-and-spoke network connects experienced clinical trial research “hubs” to a wider network of “spoke” sites closer to outbreak-prone areas. It is designed to enable faster, more coordinated generation of clinical evidence during epidemics and pandemics. The initial implementation will focus on West Africa before expanding to other regions of the continent.
CEPI’s Research Preparedness Program, which this funding supports, aims to strengthen clinical trial sites’ ability to rapidly pivot from routine research to evidence generation in outbreaks. The program supports “warm” sites — those with the infrastructure, trained staff and systems needed to rapidly activate clinical research when an outbreak occurs. This aligns with CEPI’s 100 Days Mission, the goal of developing safe and effective vaccines within 100 days of identifying a new pandemic threat.
With this latest commitment, CEPI has now allocated a total of US$28.8 million to the Research Preparedness Program. The funding primarily supports clinical trial sites in West Africa, alongside a few sites in East and Central Africa.
The clinical trial capabilities will be designed for use by multiple partners across vaccine, diagnostic and therapeutic research, with open-access principles applied to data and results. The Africa CDC, African Medicines Agency and WHO AFRO have each committed to integrating regulatory readiness, harmonised protocols and coordinated ethics review into the network.
Source: Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, “Strengthening Africa’s outbreak-ready evidence generation capabilities”, 26 October 2026: https://africacdc.org/news-item/strengthening-africas-outbreak-ready-evidence-generation-capabilities/
