The International Vaccine Institute (IVI), an international organisation with a mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on September 30 to establish a collaborative partnership. Joint activities will include developing materials to train early-career vaccinologists as well as collaborating across the entire spectrum of vaccine development.

Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of IVI, said: “IVI is pleased to partner with LSHTM, a world-leading center for research and advanced education in public health, to train the next generation of vaccine scientists and advance critical vaccines through every stage of development. LSHTM alumni represent a number of IVI epidemiologists, clinicians, and biostatisticians, and we look forward to combining our multidisciplinary expertise to double our impact in improving global health through vaccination and capacity-building.”

Professor Dame Anne Mills, Deputy Director and Provost at LSHTM, said: “LSHTM and IVI have long-standing collaborations on research, education, and capacity-building. We have ongoing research collaborations on impact assessment of licensed vaccines against typhoid fever, and new vaccines in the pipeline for Strep A, invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella, and chikungunya. We look forward to strengthening our collaborations across every stage of vaccine evaluation. This includes basic science, preclinical studies and clinical trials, effectiveness and implementation studies, epidemiology, modelling, and economic evaluation to generate evidence for policy and facilitate introduction, uptake, and sustainable impact on vaccine equity.”

Professor Beate Kampmann, Co-Director of the Vaccine Centre at LSHTM, said: “The Vaccine Centre at LSHTM is delighted to partner with IVI to strengthen our mutual vision of enhancing our understanding of the societal value of vaccines in all regions of the world through interdisciplinary research, training of the next generation of vaccinologists and advocacy.”

IVI and LSHTM share a commitment to facilitating the transfer of knowledge, know-how and technology to build capacity and collaborative networks, particularly in low-resource settings. LSHTM faculty regularly join an esteemed group of lecturers for the annual International Vaccinology Course, IVI’s flagship training program.