Following the SARS outbreak, there was a great interest in understanding the potential risk coronaviruses pose to human populations.

This is done by collecting viral specimens from all over the world and looking at ways in which they could combine or mutate, and how the resulting virus behaves. You then infect and animal with the most dangerous (or probable) new virus, and test new vaccines for treating it. If done correctly, you have a catalogue of vaccines for potential threats before they occur in nature.