Adelaide scientists will lead a $2 million research project to develop new vaccines to treat hepatitis C.

The program hopes to identify antiviral proteins that can be used to fight the disease.

With more than 170 million people around the world infected with hepatitis C, University of Adelaide virologist Michael Beard said an effective vaccine was one of the world's global health priorities.

Current treatment is expensive and often causes severe side effects with a success rate of between 50 and 80 per cent.

"In Australia, more than 264,000 people have been infected with the hepatitis C virus and there are approximately 10,000 new infections per year," Dr Beard said.

"A proportion of these are intravenous drug users, with alcohol playing a significant role in disease progression."

Dr Beard said the new research program would bring together a team of researchers with skills in basic virology and immunology with experts to could translate laboratory findings into human clinical trials.