Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organizations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.

Co-founded in 2017 by Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation with commitments of $100 million each, CEPI works with vaccine developers, manufacturers, governments, philanthropies, civil society, and global health organizations to find solutions to diseases.¹⁾

CEPI was launched in 2017 at the World Economic Forum, co-founded with a $460 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and the governments of India and Norway.²⁾

On Jan 18th 2022 Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation pledged additional $150M each. The latest funding will support CEPI’s efforts to improve existing vaccines and increase vaccine accessibility, with a focus on the needs of low- and middle-income countries, and to reduce the risks of future pandemics and epidemics through research and development at scale. CEPI aims to develop vaccines against any new, unknown disease within a hundred days of the pathogen being sequenced.³⁾

CEPI and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research co-administer the CIHR-CEPI Leadership Award for Excellence in Vaccine Research for Infectious Diseases of Epidemic Potential.⁴⁾