Implementation of the Influenza Vaccines Roadmap – Proposal for Monitoring, Evaluation and Adjustment

Improved influenza vaccines are urgently needed to reduce the global burden of seasonal influenza and enable an effective public health response to the ongoing pandemic threat from emerging influenza viruses. The Influenza Vaccines R&D Roadmap (IVR), completed in September 2021 following an extensive global stakeholder engagement process, provides a framework for guiding R&D activities aimed at accelerating the development of improved seasonal influenza vaccines and broadly protective or universal influenza vaccines. To ensure successful implementation of the roadmap’s strategies, follow-up activities are needed to promote awareness, encourage stakeholder buy-in, and track outcomes. CIDRAP proposes to conduct a 3-year project to: (1) monitor and evaluate progress in achieving the IVR goals and milestones, including changes in the status of knowledge gaps and barriers to influenza vaccine R&D; (2) revise and update the roadmap to reflect R&D progress, changes in timelines, new knowledge gaps and barriers to influenza vaccine R&D, and learnings from the ongoing development of COVID-19 vaccines; and (3) maintain and update the IVR website as a communications hub for the influenza vaccine R&D community to strengthen engagement and share information and new developments.