The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan has been awarded a $24 million grant to help develop a vaccine to protect against wide-ranging strains of coronaviruses.

VIDO’s funding flows from Norwegian-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) into its ongoing development of its pan-sarbecovirus vaccine.

Dr. Nicole Lurie, Executive Director of Emergency Preparedness at CEPI, said the vaccine is designed by combining fragments of several different coronaviruses into a single vaccine.

VIDO’s goal is to develop a vaccine that would improve a person’s resistance to SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that led to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future coronaviruses, limiting how much resources are spent on new vaccines to match different strains of the virus.