The project named “VAX- ACTION: tackling effectively vaccine hesitancy in Europe”, from the European consortium led by GHTM/IHMT/NOVA, was recommended for co-funding by the European Union through the EU4 Health Programme (EU4H).
VAX-ACTION is a consortium composed of 8 partners*, from 6 countries, coordinated by Tiago Correia, professor and researcher at GHTM’s Population health, Policies and Services Research Group. VAX-ACTION is the second project lead by GHTM/IHMT/NOVA.
Vaccine hesitancy – the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability – is a problem increasingly being recognized globally and poses an academic and political concern. Its main implication reflects in lower-than-expected vaccine uptake rates.
According to Tiago Correia, “VAX-ACTION aims to support EU Member States and relevant stakeholders to implement a combination of tailored, evidence-based interventions aimed to reduce vaccine hesitancy”.
Regarding the scope and the activities to be developed, the project “addresses the need to understand what type of interventions are now available, which are effective, how to translate effective interventions to new contexts, and to explain the unsuccessful ones to create opportunities for learning and redesign”.
Moreover, “VAX-ACTION key relevance is to design and implement interventions and recommendations built on sound theory, existing evidence, and best practices of principles in health evaluation”. The interventions – designed and evaluated in two settings per target region – will be conducted in target regions in Portugal, Italy, France, Romania, and Czechia.
“The recommendations for embedding improvement and change are expected to be prioritized along with tailored dissemination and evaluation strategies. This will support scale up and translation to other member states, WHO European Region members and other countries”, mention the researcher.
For Tiago Correia the EU4H funding is “an opportunity to continue a pathway devoted to increase trust in vaccines and vaccination campaigns. VAX-ACTION builds on previous EU-level consortiums which IHMT is part of, including for EU’s Horizon 2020 and the ECDC, and it represents the natural step forward to try to set in practice the academic evidence on how to reduce vaccine hesitancy”.
*VAX-ACTION Consortium:
Universita Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore (UCSC)
Institut Pasteur (IP)
The Association of Schools ff Publiic Health in the European Region (ASPHER)
Institutul National de Management Al Serviciilor De Sanatate (INMSS)
Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP)
Institut Postgradualniho Vzdelavani Ve Zdravotnictvi (IPVZ (IPME))
Universita Degli Studi Di Pavia (UNIPV)
Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele (UNISR)
