The Influenza Virus Toolkit: a reagent sharing resource for influenza research

The aim of this proposal is to develop an influenza virus reagent resource, an outward-facing national asset for the long-term storage and redistribution of influenza virology reagents. Influenza viruses are one of the leading global causes of respiratory illness and have been the subject of intensive research over decades. This has created a highly active but dispersed research environment. A wealth of non-commercial reagents exists, but they are challenging to identify and time-consuming to obtain, and requests for them create significant administrative and archiving burdens for the originating groups. We will address this by creating the Influenza Virus Toolkit, a resource-sharing initiative modelled after our recently developed Coronavirus Toolkit. This will build on the established MRC Reagents and Services framework and the CVR Reagent Repository to provide a sustainable, long-term framework for the archiving and redistribution of reagents for influenza virus research, for academics and industry, in the UK and overseas. This project will mobilise resources in the extremely active field of influenza virology, in particular catalysing resource sharing from the current MRC portfolio of virology research. It will foster open-science and a culture of collaboration among influenza researchers. Importantly, it will also create a key resource for the rapid provision of research reagents during the next influenza pandemic.