It was formed in November 2005 through a partnership between the University of Oxford and the UK Institute for Animal Health.

[6][7] In 2020, the institute successfully developed the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, in a project backed by private companies including Oxford Sciences Innovation, Google Ventures, and Sequoia Capital, among others.

[8] When developed, the UK government backed trials, purchased 100 million doses, and encouraged Oxford to work with AstraZeneca, a company based in Europe, instead of Merck & Co., a US-based company; while the US gave US$1.2bn of government funding in return for 300 million doses.

[1][12] The institute is named after the English physician and immunization pioneer Edward Jenner (1749–1823), who was a major contributor to the development of the smallpox vaccine.

Funding of the institute continued until October 2005, when it was relaunched replacing the four founding funding partners (GlaxoSmithKline, the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Department of Health) with the University of Oxford and the Institute for Animal Health.