Hantaan virus (HTNV) is one of the main causes of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a severe disease affecting endemic regions across Asia, with growing concern over its geographical spread driven by environmental change. Despite decades of research, there is still no broadly effective and easily deployable vaccine able to provide reliable protection against the genetic diversity of Hantaan virus. Therefore, within an international consortium, we submitted HANTAAN-VAX-EU proposal under the Horizon Europe HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-DISEASE-04 call (Cluster 1- Health), addressing the development of novel vaccines against viral pathogens with epidemic potential.
The goal: a scalable framework for European epidemic preparedness
HANTAAN-VAX-EU aims to develop and compare HTNV vaccine candidates across three complementary platforms (mRNA, viral vectors, and virus-like particles), built on antigens designed using structural data and sequence diversity analysis. By combining a multiplatform, comparative approach with early integration of manufacturing and regulatory considerations, our purpose is to reduce the risk of failure typical of single-platform vaccine programmes and to shorten the path from preclinical development to clinical evaluation.
Beyond its specific outcome for HTNV, HANTAAN-VAX-EU is designed to deliver a transferable, scalable framework for accelerating vaccine development against other emerging viral threats, contributing to European epidemic-preparedness goals in line with the priorities of the HERA initiative.
A European Partnership for epidemic preparedness
HANTAAN-VAX-EU is a five-year project (60 months) that brings together an international consortium coordinated by the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), with R-Evolution Worldwide Srl-Impresa Sociale (Italy), the Institut Pasteur (France), Umeå University (Sweden), the Department of Health and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) (United Kingdom), and the University of Helsinki (Finland), combining expertise in vaccinology, structural biology, virology, immunology, regulatory science and clinical development.
In the event of financing, R-EvoWW will contribute to the project coordination and lead the Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation activities, connecting scientific innovation with policy and public health practice, while spreading the project results among researchers, policy-makers, public health stakeholders and other relevant actors.
