The TBVAC2020 proposal builds on the highly successful and long-standing collaborations in subsequent EC-FP5-, FP6- and FP7-funded TB vaccine and biomarker projects, but also brings in a large number of new key partners from excellent laboratories from Europe, USA, Asia, Africa and Australia, many of which are global leaders in the TB field. This was initiated by launching an open call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) prior to this application and to which interested parties could respond. In total, 115 EoIs were received and ranked by the TBVI Steering Committee using proposed H2020 evaluation criteria. This led to the prioritisation of 52 R&D approaches included in this proposal.
TBVAC2020 aims to innovate and diversify the current TB vaccine and biomarker pipeline while at the same time applying portfolio management using gating and priority setting criteria to select as early as possible the most promising TB vaccine candidates, and accelerate their development. TBVAC2020 proposes to achieve this by combining creative “bottom-up” approaches for vaccine discovery (WP1), new preclinical models addressing clinical challenges (WP2) and identification and characterisation of correlates of protection (WP5) with a directive “top-down” portfolio management approach aiming to select the most promising TB vaccine candidates by their comparative evaluation using objective gating and priority setting criteria (WP6) and by supporting direct, head-to head or comparative preclinical and early clinical evaluation (WP3, WP4). This approach will both innovate and diversify the existing TB vaccine and biomarker pipeline as well as accelerate development of most promising TB vaccine candidates through early development stages. The proposed approach and involvement of many internationally leading groups in the TB vaccine and biomarker area in TBVAC2020 fully aligns with the Global TB Vaccine Partnerships (GTBVP).