Call for Proposals to Support Member States and Other Relevant Actors

Deadline: 16-Mar-23

The European Commission (EC) is pleased to launch a Call for proposals to support Member States and other relevant actors to implement relevant results of innovative public health research in relation to vaccination against COVID-19.

Funding Information

• The available call budget is EUR 18, 400 000. This budget might be increased by maximum 20%.

Eligible Activities

• Description of the activities to be funded under this topic
• The action should cover the following activities:
  • Mapping public health evidence and research results on COVID-19 large-scale vaccination that could be relevant for uptake, including findings, from Member States and outside of the Union;
  • Identifying challenges and assess the feasibility to implement solutions in Member States, based on the mapping and taking country-specific factors into account;
  • Developing implementation plans and pilot activities to respond to the current pandemic context or future health crises, or to optimise current routine vaccination practices, including catch-up vaccination;
  • implementing the pilot activities in volunteering Member States including the activities identified as potentially most effective (e.g. training programmes for health professionals, awareness-raising campaigns to tackle vaccine hesitancy, health preparedness training programmes, infrastructure initiatives, dedicated events for the exchange of good practices, risk communication and community engagement etc.);
  • Identifying successful pilot activities and, based on these, develop a robust sustainability plan for continued implementation and toolkits and recommendations for upscaling in other Member States.

Specific action-level indicators for reporting purposes

• Applicants shall collect data on the following specific action-level indicators in their regular reporting activities in case of award:
  • Number of items (public health findings) mapped;
  • Number of outcomes (analysis, reports, recommendations, etc.) produced on the basis of the information identified by the mapping;
  • Number of Member States implementing solutions and recommendations produced on the basis of the information identified by the mapping;
  • Number of implementation plans produced;
  • Number of pilot activities initiated;
  • Number of Member States participating in pilot activities;
  • Number of pilot projects considered successful for upscaling;
  • Number of sustainability plans, toolkits and policy recommendations for upscaling pilot projects in all Member States;
  • Number of Member States and/or Regions, which gave a commitment to the further implementation or uptake.
  • The applicants are required to include in their proposals additional specific action-level indicators, which will be agreed with the Commission during the grant agreement preparation.
  • The Commission may require the awardees to collect data for additional specific action-level indicators.

Expected Results and Impact

• The action is expected to deliver an inventory of relevant innovative public health research on COVID19 large-scale vaccination and implement plans in relevant Member States taking into account feasibility and country specific factors. This will result, based on pilot projects implemented in several Member States and, after assessment, in the development of sustainability plans and toolkits and recommendations.

Expected Impact:

• Specific mandatory deliverables and/or milestones
• These activities are expected to increase efficiency in terms of large-scale vaccination, making the best possible use of public health findings to increase uptake of vaccines.
• The proposal should support the identification and implementation of some of the key public health findings obtained as a result of the surge in initiatives in the field of vaccination during the COVID-pandemic and monkeypox health crisis, although not restricted to these events. Many of those projects would have delivered promising results by now, which could be further maximised from pilot activities into large-scale vaccination actions, be it COVID-19 or routine vaccination, in particular also catch-up vaccination that was missed at the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health crisis events, such as COVID-19 and monkeypox, can occur at any time and they must be better prepared to react to emergencies in the field of vaccination. There may also be a need to enhance catch-up vaccination in the context of routine childhood programmes in the Member States/other countries participating in the EU4Health Programme, if they suffered interruptions or delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless, Member States/other countries participating in the EU4Health Programme must continue to improve vaccination coverage, or sustain high levels of vaccination, to avoid potential life-threatening outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
• The proposal may concern any aspects of the implementation of vaccination programmes, including but not limited to: improvements to the strategy and planning of vaccination events; better logistics or staffing planning and organisation; the actual administration of the vaccines (e.g. new delivery models such as mobile units). The proposal should test the transferability of such findings to future health crisis involving mass vaccination or to large-scale routine immunisation programmes in the Member States.
• A project funded under this topic shall include at least, but not be limited to, the following deliverables:
• Mapping public health findings and evidence on large-scale vaccination 
• This should be a deliverable early in the project;
• Implementation report from the pilot action ;
• Sustainability plan for continued implementation, relevant toolkits and policy recommendations for upscaling in other Member States

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • eligible non-EU countries:
  • Listed EEA countries and countries associated to the EU4Health
  • Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an
  • Association agreement and where the agreement enters into force
  • Before grant signature (list of participating countries).
  • Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
• Specific eligibility criteria for applicants
  • Academia and education establishments, research institutes, hospitals, expert networks, private entities, Member States’ authorities, and civil society organisations (associations, foundations, NGOs and similar entities).
  • Extensive experience in public health and the planning and/or implementation of vaccination programmes, with a minimum of 10 years of proved experience.

For more information, visit EC.