The specific amount, from the Government's Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund, cannot be disclosed due to commercial sensitivity - but it is not part of the $14 billion still in reserve.
It is in addition to the $37 million vaccine strategy released in May to support domestic and international work.
Ardern said there were "reasons for optimism" in the global search for a vaccine.
Ardern was visiting the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington this morning with Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Megan Woods.
"We are working particularly closely with Australia to ensure we are connected to all parts of vaccine development, distribution and use, as well as our Pacific neighbours to elevate their voices," she said.
The mission was to secure a safe vaccine at the earliest possible time, she said.
"We are focused on safety. We are focused on effectiveness."
New Zealand's task force was speaking to a number of other countries, she said.
She had a conversation with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week.
"We have always drawn from each other's strengths in the area of science and innovation."
Of the $37m announced in May:
• $15m is for New Zealand to join CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) Investors' Council for global research efforts.
• $5m is for New Zealand research, including $3m for Biocell to upgrade existing facilities so that it has the necessary scale to support global vaccine supply. This also provides the potential for New Zealand to manufacture vaccines locally.
• $7m for the vaccine alliance, Gavi, which distributes vaccines to developing countries.
• $10m is for Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand – Ohu Kaupare Huaketo to evaluate vaccine candidates here and abroad. Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa is a partnership between the Malaghan Institute, the University of Otago and Victoria University.
Malaghan Institute director and Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa programme director Professor Graham Le Gros said the alliance will evaluate vaccine candidates in pre-clinical models and human trials.
He said the alliance's funding pot has been boosted by donations, which as well as supporting the platform was accelerating the alliance's own vaccine research and development efforts.
This includes a recombinant spike protein vaccine being developed out of Dr Davide Comoletti's lab at Victoria University of Wellington, an inactivated virus vaccine in progress in Professor Miguel Quiñones-Mateu's lab at the University of Otago and a pan-coronavirus vaccine being explored by Avalia Immunotherapies with international collaborators.
"We're excited by the potential of these candidates, but we'll be putting them through the same rigorous screening process as we will other home-grown and international vaccine options."
A recent World Health Organization report said 29 potential vaccines have reached clinical evaluation - including seven which have reached the crunch stage of phase III.
University of Auckland vaccinologist Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris said one of those could even be cleared to begin rolling out by the end of the year.
One potential was the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca's viral vector vaccine, called ChAdOx1-S, which has already been observed to provoke a T-cell response within 14 days of vaccination - and an antibody response within 28 days.
Australia was now looking to get its hands on the vaccine, having just signed an agreement to manufacture it.
Two other vaccine candidates, also in phase III, are from a revolutionary new class called RNA vaccines, are designed to induce neutralising antibodies directed at a portion of the coronavirus "spike" protein, which the virus uses to bind to and enter human cells.
The LNP-encapsulated mRNA vaccine, developed by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Massachusetts-based Moderna in the US, and the 3 LNP-mRNAs vaccine, created by BioNTech, Fosun Pharma and Pfizer, are both showing promise.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off a mass roll-out of the Sputnik V vaccine, but immunologists have seriously questioned its efficacy.
