The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have announced that the government is investing £33.6m into studies to accelerate development of a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine through human challenge trials. The studies will be carried out by Imperial College London, hVIVO and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. BEIS and DHSC have also announced a further £19.7m investment in Public Health England (PHE) to fund a state-of-the-art laboratory facility at PHE Porton Down with the scope of increasing capabilities to process blood samples from clinical trials.