The RCEs funded projects from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These grants supply 2 years of funding to support exceptionally innovative projects. The research must demonstrate a high degree of scientific risk but have the potential for high payoff, transformational results, or paradigm shifts.
Each year, novel strains of influenza A viruses arise through mutation and manage to infect about one-fifth of the human population. We remain ignorant of what specific features determine the success or failure of these "antigenic drift" variants. As a result, we are left without a sound basis for understanding which influenza vaccine strains will best protect the human population against annual epidemics.