A multinational and multi-disciplinary research consortium has been awarded €11.9 million to conduct a 36-month research project during the current outbreak of Zika virus infection in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme awarded the funding to the ZIKAlliance consortium, which includes researchers from the Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health at the University of Oxford.
The consortium is coordinated by leading virologist Professor Xavier de Lamballerie (INSERM, IRD, Aix-Marseille University), and includes the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the Universities of Heidelberg, Leuven, and Oxford, Erasmus Medical Center, the Leiden University Medical Center, the University of Bonn Medical Centre, Fundação Bahiana de Infectologia, and Institut Pasteur among its 52 partners, located in 18 countries.
In a global effort to combat the global threat that has affected 73 countries and territories worldwide, the consortium will bring together numerous academic disciplines to address three key objectives.