Work packages - VAX-Action

Work Package 1: Management and coordination
Lead: IHMT, NOVA University Lisbon, PORTUGAL

To manage and coordinate the project, arrange meetings, monitoring and evaluation of the project, to grant the financial management, and the writing, delivering and management of progress reports and to ensure that project findings and results strictly adhere to national and European laws governing privacy, data protection, and voluntary project participation, as well as to oversee its implementation and the implementation of interventions, besides the handling of data and responsible dissemination.

Work Package 2: Europe-wide interventions mapping and critical appraisal
Lead: University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, ITALY

General objective:

To identify the content and outcomes of interventions aimed to address vaccine hesitancy in the northern hemisphere to inform the design of a robust and cohesive action plan to reduce vaccine hesitancy in EU member states and beyond (aim of intervention stage - WPs 3, 4 and 5).

Specific objectives:

To map public health evidence and research results on large-scale vaccination programs in Europe and north America.
To map interventions aimed to address vaccine hesitancy regarding new and well-stablished vaccines and vaccination programs (Covid-19, mpox, national immunizations programs for children) in Europe and north America;
To identify successful and unsuccessful interventions designs aimed to address vaccine hesitancy in Europe and north America, including challenges in the implementation, evaluation designs, and the feasibility of scaling-up solutions that are context-sensitive;
To identify significant similarities or dissimilarities in the designs and outcomes of interventions aimed to address vaccine hesitancy in northern countries where political and academic concern towards this

WP2 aims to provide answers to the following questions:

Which public health evidence on large-scale vaccination programs are used in the design and implementation of interventions aimed to increase vaccine uptake?
Which challenges have been undermining the feasibility of such interventions in diverse populations and regions?
Which successful pilot activities exist and the extent to which they have, or not, been informing the implementation to other populations and regions?

Work Package 3: Oversight of interventions and external evaluation
Lead: IHMT, NOVA University Lisbon, PORTUGAL

General objective:

The general objective of WP3 is twofold: to oversee the overall consistency of tailored and evidence-based interventions designed for frontline health workers (WP4) and targeted populations (WP5) in the different target regions, and to design and implement the external evaluation plan of those interventions.

Specific objectives:

To contribute to the design and implementation of interventions aimed at increasing knowledge and skills that promote adherence to vaccination in different contexts.
To help implementers in WP 4 and 5 to make the necessary adjustments to the intervention plans to improve its effectiveness.
To determine the extent to which the intended actions build a constructive dialogue with all the protagonists involved in the field of vaccination is likely to contribute to reduce vaccine hesitancy in the selected interventions.
To describe and analyse the unpredictable effects of interventions that may compromise the reduction of vaccine hesitancy.
To promote a space for dialogue and reflection within the consortium to strengthen the knowledge production towards the project’s overall goal.Intended outcomes

WP3 aims to provide answers to the following questions:

Is it possible to design common frameworks of interventions aimed to reduce vaccine hesitancy intended for frontline healthcare workers and targeted populations?
Did the different interventions produce the expected outcomes? If yes, what one can learn to scale them up to other contexts (regions and countries)?
If no, which driving forces prevented them to happen and which strategies can overcome such limitations? What conditions determine the observed effects?
What one can learn from the way the interventions were implemented with the different target audiences in different countries?
What is the suitability of this overall design of interventions to effectively reduce vaccine hesitancy and consolidate vaccination coverage in Europe?

Work Package 4: Interventions targeting FHW for vaccine promotion towards hesitant users
Lead: Institute Pasteur, FRANCE

General objective:

To tailor, implement and evaluate interventions designed for frontline health workers (FHW) in five partner countries, which them to accompany vaccine hesitant users and patients.

Specific objectives:

To assure the development of tailored intervention protocols targeting FHW in five partner countries, according to the overall design (WP3) and to country- and region- specific needs and constraints.
To design a internal detailed evaluation protocol, that captures effectiveness and implementation quality across and specifically for each target region.
To assure implementation of interventions to FHW in the five target regions, according to the tailored intervention protocols
To assure data collection according to the detailed internal evaluation protocol in the five target regions

WP4 aims to provide answers to the following questions:

Is it possible to tailor a common framework for interventions to FHW that takes country- and region-specific needs and constraints into account?
Which effectiveness and implementation quality could be achieved by such tailored interventions?
Which are the overall and specific barriers encountered in the tailoring process and the implementation of such tailored interventions based on a common framework

Work Package 5: Interventions targeting vulnerable populations’ misconceptions and knowledge
Lead: National School of Public Health, Management and Professional Development, ROMANIA

General objective:

To tailor, implement and evaluate interventions designed to reduce vaccine hesitancy among targeted populations by addressing misconceptions and increasing knowledge about vaccines and related diseases.

Specific objectives:

To assure the development of tailored intervention protocols targeting specific population groups (i.e., newly arrived migrants, hesitant parents, people of low socio- economic status) in five partner countries, according to the overall design (WP3) and to country- and region-specific needs and constraints.
To design a detailed internal evaluation protocol, that captures effectiveness and implementation quality across and specifically for each target region.
To assure implementation of interventions to the targeted groups in the five target regions, according to the tailored intervention protocols
To assure data collection according to the detailed internal evaluation protocol in five partner countries

WP5 aims to provide answers to the following questions:

Is it possible to tailor a common framework for interventions to the targeted populations that takes country- and region-specific needs and constraints into account?
Which effectiveness and implementation quality could be achieved by such tailored interventions?
Which are the overall and specific barriers encountered in the tailoring process and the implementation of such tailored interventions based on a common framework?

Work Package 6: Recommendations, communication, dissemination and exploitation
Lead: The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER), BELGIUM

General Objective:

To engage in dialog with relevant stakeholders, providing target-country specific and EU wide recommendations to deal with vaccine hesitancy, distributing these recommendations and the project work and results widely to relevant audiences (public health and health care communities, EU and country specific stakeholders, and the broader public).

Specific Objectives:

To design and develop recommendations targeted at specific populations, health care professionals and health care authorities for each Target Region analysed, based on which wider recommendations are proposed for tailored interventions aimed at other target audiences, regions and member states.
To share and communicate project outcomes among policy makers, health professionals, advocacy groups, and researchers, over the period of the project and at the end, using a variety of methods, including active participation.
To conduct a high-level European policy conference to discuss implications for EU policy approaches, research and ‘best practice’ dissemination.

Intended outcome:

To engage stakeholders at all levels and assess solutions based on country-specific factors and further to communicate country specific and EU-wide recommendations to combat vaccine hesitancy to relevant actors in public health, health care and policy arenas based on the implemented pilot activities so that they may be sustained and scaled up across EU country settings after the project period.