Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium Vimc

VIMC is an international community of modellers providing high-quality estimates of the public health impact of vaccination, to inform and improve decision making. Following an initial phase (2016-2022), VIMC secured renewed funding of £12.8 million (USD $15.4 million) for a new five-year phase (2022-2027). Funding comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Wellcome Trust. This new phase – ‘VIMC 2.0’ – will see a greater focus on modelling to address questions for vaccine policy and practice, working with a more diverse international community of modellers. As climate change becomes increasingly important, the Consortium is also establishing a new research programme on the impact of climate change on climate-sensitive vaccine-preventable diseases. By 2027, VIMC’s core aims are: • to provide reliable and accessible estimates of vaccine impact across the Gavi portfolio • to address critical modelling-related vaccine policy questions raised by stakeholders who will be dynamically engaged in our work • to translate the Consortium’s modelling to real-world policy that improves health outcomes • to foster a diverse international community of vaccine impact modellers, inclusive of modellers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) • to provide training in infectious disease modelling and its application to vaccine-preventable diseases for both modellers and policymakers. In addition, more specific aims of VIMC’s research programme on climate change are: • to better characterise the mechanistic relationship between environment, climate and disease transmission • to assess implications of long-term climate change for disease burden, range and routine vaccination • to optimise control programmes to respond to seasonal variation in disease burden and the consequences of increasingly frequent extreme climate events.