Overview
The BioPREVAIL × CEPI Biosecurity Innovation Challenge identifies and incubates solutions that keep biosafety and biosecurity strong when vaccine research, manufacturing and deployment must move under 100 Days Mission conditions, and that continue to hold once the surge has passed. Delivered by the Global Health Security Fund through BioPREVAIL, in partnership with CEPI, it culminates in a public showcase on the margins of the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2027.
The 100 Days Mission asks the world to go from pathogen identification to a deployable vaccine in a hundred days. Moving at that speed strains the practices that protect people, communities and the environment from accidental harm and deliberate misuse. This Challenge finds and incubates the solutions that keep those practices strong under pressure, and that still hold on day 101. It is an accelerator, not a grant: BioPREVAIL co-develops each solution with its team through mentorship, partner introductions and positioning for follow-on funding, and we would rather back a transformative early-stage idea than a polished one that changes less.
We are looking for technologies, systems innovations, training approaches and empirical studies that close a biosafety or biosecurity gap in the rapid development, manufacture and deployment of vaccines and other biologics. We take a One Health view, and ideas borrowed from other industries are especially welcome. Six areas guide the call without limiting it: sharing data instead of samples, including data security, sovereignty and inactivation; chain-of-custody and tamper-evidence for high-consequence specimens; diversion, misuse and the insider threat, including misuse of AI-enabled tools; confirming and attributing the signal in resource-constrained settings; compliance-to-action, and financing that sticks; and the digital–physical biological seam, where instruction becomes physical. Solutions with a credible path to low- and middle-income settings, where controls are hardest to fund and sustain, are weighted most heavily. Full scope and examples are in the Call for Applications.
Opens:
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Award:
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Teams
A minimum of three teams will be selected for a six-month incubation running from December 2026 to May 2027. Each receives up to USD 50,000 in non-dilutive seed funding, with no equity taken and full ownership of intellectual property retained. Teams are paired with a dedicated lead mentor and can draw on BioPREVAIL’s bench of experts in biocontainment, biosafety, regulatory affairs, intellectual property and commercialization. The program includes the BioPREVAIL Academy curriculum, bi-weekly office hours and milestone reviews, and a graduate student associate from The University of Texas at Austin. Teams receive warm introductions to funders across the GHSF, CEPI and partner networks, a place on stage at the Innovation Showcase in Geneva on 24–27 May 2027 with travel and accommodation provided, and a formal biosecurity review they can present to regulators, procurers and funders.
Applications are open to companies, academic and research groups, national and reference laboratories, non-profits and consortia from any country. Proposals must directly strengthen biosafety or biosecurity under the 100 Days Mission, show what will be demonstrably true at month six, mitigate any biosecurity risks of the work itself, and build on components already validated at prototype level. A mature technology applied to a new problem is exactly what we want. Teams based in high-income countries proposing solutions for lower-resource settings are strongly encouraged to apply with a partner in the geography of intended use.
The first stage is a short online form and a pitch deck, expected to take no more than two hours. Shortlisted teams provide a brief technical annex and budget, then pitch live to an independent panel of judges. Applications close on 31 October 2026, interviews take place in the week of 9 November, selected teams are notified on 16 November, and incubation begins on 1 December 2026. Two virtual information sessions will be held on 6 and 8 October 2026. Follow @BioPREVAIL on LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook for updates on this call and future opportunities.