Public and private investments in the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking will have exceeded €49 million at the call level by the end of 2026, bringing together organizations to fund infectious disease clinical research across Europe and Africa.
Co-Funding Partners Commit Millions to Late-Stage Clinical Research
The public-private partnership model combines resources from European and African governments alongside philanthropic foundations and private biopharmaceutical companies. Contributing partners at the call level include the Gates Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), BioNTech, and the Leprosy Research Initiative. These entities co-fund and co-create calls for proposals while shaping research priorities and sharing scientific expertise.
Beyond call-level funding, project-specific contributions from approximately 100 organizations have reached €159 million. A further €103 million has been pledged in 2026 to support project proposals currently under review. Participants include the multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis and the global non-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
IAVI and Novartis Advance Vaccine and Treatment Programs
The WANECAM 3 project illustrates how private sector drug development assets integrate with African and European research networks. The consortium aims to achieve a single-dose cure for uncomplicated falciparum malaria by developing next-generation antimalarials. Novartis is contributing clinical trial sponsorship, regulatory support, and access to two antimalarial compounds to move promising molecules toward approved treatments. The project builds on earlier work through WANECAM2, which advanced the ganaplacide/lumefantrine treatment against rising parasitic resistance.
In parallel, IAVI is partnering with the initiative on poverty-related diseases and pandemic preparedness. IAVI leads a major clinical trial in sub-Saharan Africa under the MTBVAC-AVANTE project, testing whether the MTBVAC tuberculosis vaccine candidate can prevent pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults. The vaccine was designed by the University of Zaragoza and is developed by the Spanish biopharmaceutical company Biofabri.
Conducting research in partnership with African institutions ensures epidemiological and biological relevance, and public health impact,
said Kundai Chinyenze, IAVI’s regional director, Africa. Chinyenze noted that these networks and laboratories form the backbone of emergency outbreak responses for endemic diseases and emerging threats.
A single-dose cure could fundamentally change how malaria is treated. But getting there takes more than compounds, it takes trials run in the countries most affected, by researchers who know those settings best,
said Sujata Vaidyanathan, development head, Global Health at Novartis.
Dual Dividend and European Research Integration
For European participating states, the partnership connects global research efforts with domestic health priorities, such as managing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis within the WHO European Region.
Supporting Europe-Africa research partnerships therefore delivers a dual dividend for the EU: greater protection against cross-border health threats and a stronger, more competitive European research and innovation ecosystem,
said Hester Kuipers, executive director at IAVI Europe.
Upcoming Networking Platform and EDCTP Forum Dates
The Global Health EDCTP3 Programme Office will publish its 2027 Work Programme in December 2026, inviting potential co-funding partners to join a Networking Platform launching in January 2027. Following those events, the 13th edition of the EDCTP Forum is scheduled for 5-9 April 2027, in Madrid, with organizers expecting 1,500 participants to convene and discuss infectious disease research in sub-Saharan Africa.
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