Fresh funding to strengthen Ebola surveillance, diagnostics and therapeutics

Global Health EDCTP3 is activating a €4 million emergency funding mechanism to support research activities addressing the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, as part of a concerted approach leveraging its existing investment of €73.5 million in Ebola, clinical trial networks and epidemic preparedness. 

Additional funding may be mobilised from EDCTP Association members and Contributing Partners in the coming weeks to strengthen this response and support the newly funded projects.

Backing the continental response to Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease

The initiative comes as health authorities continue to respond to an outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no licensed vaccine or specific treatment currently exists. As of 8 June 2026, official reports from DRC and Uganda indicate 550 confirmed cases, including 102 confirmed related deaths, in DRC, and 19 cases, including 2 deaths, in Uganda.

This new funding is in response to and fully aligned with the research priorities outlined in the WHO-Africa CDC Continental preparedness and response plan published on 5 June 2026 in the context of “One response’ framework, in which Global Health EDCTP3 has been identified as a key support partner under Pillar 7: Research, Knowledge Management and Access to Medical Countermeasures.

Building on current capacities to create new Ebola countermeasures

The emergency funding mechanism will build on the work of eight ongoing projects funded by Global Health EDCTP3 that will be pivoted to respond to the new Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak through conducting additional research and coordination activities on surveillance, diagnostics and therapeutics.

The new activities will focus on three priority areas:

1. Establishing a regional Ebola surveillance and preparedness framework, connecting existing surveillance sites, laboratories, community networks and wildlife monitoring activities across affected and at-risk countries, in addition to facilitating the sharing of real-time epidemiological, clinical and genomic intelligence;
2. Accelerating validation and deployment of reliable point-of-care diagnostics, establishing a coordinated diagnostics validation platform to harmonise protocols, share specimens and biobanks, and evaluate novel diagnostic technologies under outbreak conditions;
3. Advancing broad-spectrum therapeutic candidates, building a coordinated pathway to prioritise, evaluate and advance therapeutic candidates.

Next steps

The emergency funding mechanism is being activated as part of Global Health EDCTP3’s Work Programme 2026. It will take the form of four fast-track identified beneficiary actions to strengthen and expand the work of three Ebola-specific projects (EBO-PEP, Ebola PREP-TBOX, EPOCA) and five networks of excellence (SINCEP-Africa, PRESERVE, EACCR4, ACT-PREP, WANETAM-4). Participants in these projects will be invited to submit project proposals by 7 July.

Four grants are expected to be awarded in the coming weeks and are expected to begin their activities soon after.

Calls for proposals

‘We are committed to enhanced readiness by keeping clinical networks active and regionally aligned to pivot quickly during emergencies. Our emergency response action aims to strengthen surveillance, diagnostics and therapeutic research in a coordinated way across affected and prone countries, to accelerate the tools and knowledge needed to support health authorities and improve the overall response to Ebola outbreaks’. Michael Makanga, Executive Director, Global Health EDCTP3

‘This emergency fund will help African scientists track, diagnose, and treat the Bundibugyo strain faster, protecting lives today. But stronger health systems in Africa also mean better global security for Europe tomorrow. By working together now, we’re stopping outbreaks before they spread and building a safer world for everyone.’ María Pilar Aguar Fernández, Chairperson of the Global Health EDCTP3 Governing Board

More than a decade of building Ebola readiness

Since the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, the EDCTP programmes have steadily invested in the research and capacity that Africa and Europe need to confront Ebola and other epidemic-prone infectious diseases. That work totals around €28.7 million across 15 projects focused specifically on Ebola, rising to around €124.9 million across 31 projects when broader preparedness investments, including Ebola outbreak readiness, are included. 

Capacity and networks

In 2007, under its first programme, EDCTP launched a call for proposals to strategically establish four geographically defined networks of research and academic institutions referred to as the EDCTP Regional Networks of Excellence: CANTAM (Central Africa), EACCR (Eastern Africa), TESA (Southern Africa) and WANETAM (Western Africa). The aim of these networks was to bring together different organisations from eastern, western, southern, and central Africa to improve clinical trial capacity and site preparedness in each region, with an initial focus on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Funding was renewed to all four networks in 2016 and 2020 under the second EDCTP programme.

In 2015, EDCTP funded six projects that trained healthcare workers and strengthened laboratories in the countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Uganda and Gabon. By 2016, this had grown into something larger: two epidemic preparedness networks, ALERRT and PANDORA-ID-NET, built to generate clinical evidence quickly when an epidemic strikes.

Today, a new generation of regional networks combined with epidemic preparedness consortia carries that ambition forward. Five projects launched in 2026 span the continent: SINCEP-Africa, working across an existing network of community surveillance sites; PRESERVE in Central Africa; EACCR4 in Eastern Africa; and the Africa-wide ACT-PREP. These networks have been supported with co-funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) as a Contributing Partner. The fifth network, WANETAM-4, focuses on West Africa, with co-funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of the United Kingdom (UK) through the EDCTP Association.

Designed to strengthen clinical trial capacity and epidemic preparedness, these networks are built to pivot quickly when an outbreak strikes, launching pre-approved studies, testing interventions safely, and tracking diseases across borders.

Vaccines, therapies and diagnostics

Alongside the response work, EDCTP has invested in the tools that change outcomes during an outbreak. PREVAC-UP, a long-term follow-up of Ebola vaccine recipients, is tracking how durable their protection is over five years. More recent projects are developing antibody treatments to protect people after exposure and rapid point-of-care tests that allow cases to be detected and contained faster, including work on the Sudan strain, for which no licensed vaccine or treatment yet exists.

Communities at the centre

The most recent investments recognise that science alone does not stop an outbreak. Social science research and community engagement now sit alongside the laboratories and clinical trials, helping responders communicate clearly, understand local concerns, and build the trust on which every public health response depends.

Shared capacity for overlapping outbreaks

In 2024, Global Health EDCTP3 mobilised emergency funding in response to the Mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, supporting nine research projects with a total of around €12.1 million. Several of these projects work through research centres and field sites in the DRC and Uganda, building the dual-purpose workforce, laboratory capacity and community trust networks that strengthen readiness for a concurrent Ebola outbreak in the same regions.

From outbreak response to lasting readiness

What began as emergency support has matured into sustainable flagship research networks, a tried and tested rapid-response mechanism, and regional capacities across Africa that can be mobilised the moment a new outbreak emerges.