On January 16, the first eight Ebola+ projects, funded by the EU's Innovative Medicines Initiative, got underway. The Ebola+ scheme launched in November 2014 in response to the ongoing outbreak in western Africa aims to accelerate vaccine development, manufacture, uptake and diagnostics. The total budget of €215 ($250) million stems from a consortia of over 40 partners in pharma, diagnostics, academia, public health organizations and small biotechs. Also, the IMI 2 released its third and fourth calls for proposals. The focus is on projects relating to whooping cough (pertussis) vaccination research, risk and progression of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, neuropsychiatry, the remote assessment of disease and establishing a platform to speed up patient access to new therapies. The program's total €115 ($133.7) million will come from the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program for research and innovation, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, and other industry partners. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will collaborate with IMI 2 on the pertussis project. The third call has a March 24 deadline and the fourth call a February 11 deadline.