DURHAM, N.C.  - New efforts are being made to improve the flu shot in the Triangle.

• The Duke Human Vaccine Institute is receiving three federal grants that could total up to $400 million in funding.
• Duke’s main goal is to create better vaccines that cover more strains of the flu and will prove better long term immunity.
• STAY INFORMED: Sign up for our breaking news and weather text alerts

The Duke Human Vaccine Institute is receiving three federal grants that could total up to $400 million in funding.

Those grants come from the National Institute of Heatlh’s CIVICs program which stands for Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers.

Duke’s main goal is to create better vaccines that cover more strains of the flu and will prove better long term immunity.

"For Duke itself this is a big win because it shows that we've actually done the work to manage these kinds of large contracts,“ says Dr. Tony Moody, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics.

Moody, along with Dr. Chip Walter and Matthew Johnson, PhD are all working together to improve the flu shots.

Dr. Walter says, “The flu is tricky, it changes from year to year and season to season."

Each year, the World Health Organization surveils the flu around the world, trying to predict which strains will circulate 6 to 9 months later.

That means some years the vaccine matches well while other years they might miss the mark.

"It's a little challenging because you're essentially trying to predict the future,” says Moody.

He goes on to say, "So you can have a year like we had a couple years ago where there was 25% efficacy against one of the strains. the goal this program is to try and get around some of those problems."

The three federal contracts Duke was awarded include funding for a vaccine research center, manufacturing and process development center, and a clinical center that with test the human trials.

“We have a lot of expertise in flu, this is really bringing that expertise together with process development, making product that can really go into humans, and then doing the clinical testing trying to make a substantial step forward,” says Matthew Johnson.

However, just like making a good guess of what strains might be problematic ahead of flu season, they can only predict if they’ll be able to truly improve the flu shot.

Moody says, “Certainly I think we will do better than current vaccines. whether we will get to a true universal vaccine is sort of hard to know but we're going to do the work and try to figure it out."