NEC Joins EU-Funded PREPAIR VAC Project on AI-Driven Vaccine Design
NEC Corporation has announced its participation in PREPAIR VAC, a Horizon Europe-funded research project that applies artificial intelligence to vaccine design for pandemic preparedness. The grant went to NEC OncoImmunity AS, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Bio, together with several European partners.
- NEC OncoImmunity AS, a subsidiary of NEC Bio, is part of the Horizon Europe-funded PREPAIR VAC project.
- The four-year grant starts in September 2026 and has a total budget of approximately €6.5M.
- NOI leads AI powered antigen prediction and vaccine design, aiming to anticipate viral evolution.
- The European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) coordinates the consortium, which includes partners from France, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
- The goal is a proof-of-concept package using preclinical and translational models.
A four-year grant with a EUR 6.5M budget
According to NEC, the research grant runs for four years, beginning in September 2026, with a total budget of approximately €6.5M. The project aims to tackle major challenges in vaccine design in the context of pandemic preparedness. It brings together organizations from across the vaccine development ecosystem.
European partners from academia, industry and public health have joined forces to establish what NEC describes as a next generation vaccine development framework, one that can respond more rapidly to emerging infectious diseases.
The project is coordinated by the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI). It includes partners specializing in manufacturing, formulation, preclinical validation, and the ethical, legal, regulatory and societal aspects of vaccine innovation.
NEC's role: antigen prediction and vaccine design
Within the consortium, NEC OncoImmunity AS (NOI) is the primary initiator of the project. It is responsible for AI powered antigen prediction and vaccine design. NEC says NOI will apply its advanced technologies to anticipate viral evolution and design broadly protective antigens.
According to NEC, this approach is intended to support the development of broadly protective vaccine candidates and to reduce the time required to progress from pathogen identification to vaccine design.
Dr. Kaidre Bendjama, Chief Scientific Officer at NEC OncoImmunity, said that PREPAIR VAC "reflects the European Commission’s confidence in the role of AI driven design in strengthening European pandemic preparedness." He added that NEC is applying AI to create novel rapidly scalable vaccines that address current pathogen and host diversity while anticipating future mutations. The consortium aims to generate a solid proof-of-concept package using preclinical and translational models, he said.
Partners and wider focus
PREPAIR VAC is described as a project focused on a rapid, AI driven vaccine design pipeline to improve preparedness for emerging infectious diseases. Other project partners are:
- NEVEZYNE SAS (France)
- Croda Denmark A/S (Denmark)
- Uppsala University (Sweden)
- Université Jean Monnet, Saint Étienne (France)
- Niedersächsisches Landesgesundheitsamt (Germany)
- Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (Germany)
Beyond the science and technology, the project also addresses responsible use of AI, public trust and regulatory considerations.
Horizon Europe context
Horizon Europe is the European Union’s €95.5 billion research and innovation programme for 2021 to 2027. NEC states that the project was selected under a call focused on pandemic preparedness and next generation vaccine technologies, an area of significant EU investment following COVID 19. Funding is awarded through a rigorous evaluation process, and only a limited number of proposals receive support.
NEC says the selection highlights the importance of AI driven approaches in enabling faster and more predictive responses to emerging infectious diseases.
What it means
For NEC, the grant extends the work of its biotechnology arm, NEC Bio, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and focuses on applying AI to healthcare challenges. For the wider field, the project is an EU-backed test of whether AI can shorten the path from identifying a pathogen to designing a vaccine. The source describes the planned outcome as a proof-of-concept package based on preclinical and translational models, so the work is at the research stage and no vaccine candidates or timelines for use have been announced.
