Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support the development of mucosal covid-19 vaccines.

UKRI has already funded significant research activity in this space, through a broad portfolio of work in underpinning immunology, virology and vaccinology and a rich portfolio of vaccine development programmes. Specific exemplar programmes supported through a variety of mechanisms have been identified as with immediate relevance to the development of next generation SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics and vaccines including mucosal vaccines.