Several leading organizations are joining forces to launch a project to improve benefit and risk assesments of vaccines.

The project will pave way for a pan-European framework for rapidly assessing and communicating the benefits and risks of vaccines. The hope is that the framework could make it easier for regulators and public health authorities to make fast and more informed decisions on vaccination strategies, as well as maintaining public confidence in immunisation.

The five year long, EUR 10.7 million ADVANCE project is supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and vaccine manufacturers, national public health and regulatory bodies, academic experts and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Swedish contribution in the project is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet. Researchers at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics will participate in the scientific studies planned within the ADVANCE project and will also contribute with expertise regarding the establishment of the infrastructure. Other Swedish participants include the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (SMI) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which has its headquarters in Sweden.