Ebola virus epidemic: ANR funds three research projects on the disease

At the end of 2014, ANR introduced an initiative baptised "Ebola expediter" in the exceptional context of the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. The aim of this initiative was to identify - among the pre-proposals submitted in the first stage of the generic call 2015 - scientific work that can justify rapid funding, either because it can provide answers to urgent needs in a crisis situation or because its initiation is particularly appropriate during an epidemic. On completion of an expedited selection process, three projects are being funded for a total sum of €1.7 M.

In this context of a public health emergency with a global reach, ANR used the generic call 2015 to support research work relating to the Ebola virus disease in order to obtain data that can help fight the epidemic. This initiative was set up in collaboration with the French Ebola interministerial task force, taking into account the actions implemented by the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.

Thus, from among submitted pre-proposals, a selection committee has picked out six research projects focusing on the Ebola virus disease with the potential of making a rapid contribution, outside the upstream research projects based on highly fundamental studies with long-term impacts.

The six selected projects were invited to submit a full proposal within less than a month; then they underwent an expedited evaluation process based on international peer reviews.

Three of these projects were selected for ANR funding for a total sum of €1.7 M. The projects respectively concern a field study of the genetic diversity of the virus and its transmission to model the epidemic risk, an analysis of the pathogenicity of the virus by the intensity of the inflammatory response in particular, and the development of neutralising antibodies for passive immunotherapy.

These projects have at the same time maintained their position within the generic evaluation process. The three Ebola proposals not selected for the expedited process are currently starting the second selection phase under the same peer evaluation conditions as the other full proposals.

The list of selected projects