Associated organisationsImperial College London · KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme · King's College London · National Centre for Biological Sciences, India · The Pirbright Institute · University of GlasgowEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£3.1M
PeriodFeb 2023 — Jan 2026
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still evolving, and a global network of labs is now standardising how they test new variants to guide vaccination and infection control policies in real time. This matters because the virus continues to mutate under pressure from natural immunity, vaccines, and antiviral drugs. Current risk assessments are often slow or fragmented, leaving countries without timely data to adjust their public health responses. The project also addresses a critical gap: how the virus balances immune escape with maintaining efficient transmission, and whether it can spill over into domesticated or wild animals, creating new reservoirs. If successful, this work will give countries in Africa, India, and the UK the tools to assess new variants locally, rather than relying on overseas labs. That speeds up decisions on vaccines and infection control. It also builds laboratory networks and communication systems ready for future respiratory virus outbreaks. The fundamental hamster studies on viral evolution are curiosity-driven, but they could reveal why some variants spread more easily than others—knowledge that may inform future vaccine design and pandemic preparedness.
View original technical description
SARS CoV-2 continues to evolve. Novel variants are driven by high levels of global transmission and viral replication, sustained selection pressures imparted by existing immunity acquired through natural infection and vaccination, and increasing use of antivirals. Building on G2P-UK, established working partnerships between teams in the UK, Africa and India, and an ethos of free knowledge exchange, we outline 4 inter-related aims that will enable and prepare G2P-Global to evaluate the significance of emerging viral variation across 3 continents. We will: 1) Implement standardized methodologies that enable rapid in-country risk assessment of the biological and antigenic properties of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), providing real-time data for guiding infection control and vaccination policies; 2) Undertake discovery-led molecular, cellular and in vivo (hamster) analyses of variant phenotypes to address the mechanistic basis for how the virus can evolve while balancing immune escape with the maintenance of efficient respiratory transmission; 3) Assess the potential for spill-overs into domesticated and wild animal species and subsequent reservoir seeding; 4) Establish communications networks and laboratory resources that will build technical and logistical preparedness enabling G2P-Global partners and additional collaborators to undertake in-country virological assessments of future respiratory virus outbreaks, and associated virus variants.
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