About the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Vaccines and Immunity
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Vaccines and Immunity (NCVI) is a mission-driven academic research center, anchored at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen. The primary focus of the center is the development of new or improved vaccine candidates against infectious respiratory diseases including tuberculosis, influenza and Group A Streptococcus. NCVI aims to achieve this by gaining an enhanced understanding of immune mechanisms and incorporating innovations in vaccine technologies and delivery methods.
As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted, progress and innovation in the vaccine development field holds great promise. However, we still face many scientific hurdles that limit the development of effective vaccines that can rapidly induce broad and long-lasting immunity, particularly against airborne viruses and bacteria. NCVI is developing an integrated basic and translational research program that aims to fill many of these remaining knowledge gaps and to harness this knowledge to develop more effective vaccines.
NCVI is an integral part of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI) and is responsible for the research, discovery, and educational components of the initiative. A key partner for the center and the initiative will be Statens Serum Institut.
The initiative is committed to establishing a vaccine development powerhouse in Denmark with the ultimate goal to develop clinically tested vaccine candidates against priority respiratory pathogens and to create adaptable vaccination strategies and development pipelines that will be able to rapidly respond to new emerging infectious diseases.
As a key element of NCVI’s scientific and development approach, NCVI works closely with leading local and international partners. To facilitate this, NCVI has adopted a hub and spoke organizational model. NCVI’s central hub is anchored within ISIM at the University of Copenhagen and serves as the primary focal point for the center. Additionally, we have a partner site located at Statens Serum Institut (SSI).
From this Copenhagen based hub, we aim to build a network of partners, collaborators and international consortia that provide key expertise to enrich our research portfolio and accelerate our progress towards achieving NIVI’s missions.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Vaccines and Immunity is supported by an eight-year grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.