BackgroundDespite a worldwide decrease, sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) still has high incidence and the highest percentage of under 5 deaths (55%) in the world. This is due to several causes, including high incidence of infectious disease, often neglected or underreported, lacking effective treatments or vaccines. During our activities on Typhoid fever, Sclavo Vaccines Association (SVA) and Fondazione Achille Sclavo (FAS) came across increasing evidences in sSA of marked morbidity and mortality due to an unreported disease in children and HIV patients: invasive Non-Typhoidal Salmonellosis (iNTS)MethodsSVA and FAS, two nonprofit Italian institutions devoted to supporting development of vaccines for LICs, committed to catalyze funds and a group of institutions to fight this disease of the most vulnerable. The institutions applied for national and European funding, receiving first a validation at the local level, followed by funding from the EC and EDCTP. This stepwise approach created the necessary know-how to prepare solid projects, supporting a valid candidate vaccine fit for use in LICs. The projects synergistically address reasons why this disease is neglected: low epidemiology knowledge and disease awareness, lack of candidate vaccines and financial commitments.ResultsTwo projects were rejected at the national and EU level: finally a grant was obtained in Italy from the Tuscany Region (S-Afrivac) concentrating on epidemiology, disease modeling and vaccine and assay development. The successful conclusion of this project worked to open doors for two EU grants: the H2020 EC Vacc-iNTS and the EDCTP Pedvac-iNTS projects. Within 4 years, these projects multiplied tenfold the funds devoted in the EU to iNTS vaccine development.ConclusionThe validation of targeted projects against neglected diseases at the national level followed by synergistic submission to European Agencies in appropriate calls addressing all causes of neglection may significantly increase success in fighting these modern plagues of LMICs