VAccine deveLopment for complex Intracellular neglecteD pAThogEns (VALIDATE)

Lead Research Organisation: University of Oxford
Department Name: The Jenner Institute

Abstract

For several complex pathogens, we have an incomplete understanding of the kind of immune response we need an effective vaccine to induce. In part this is because these pathogens live inside cells and can hide from the host immune response. This makes it very difficult to develop vaccines against these pathogens. The diseases caused by these pathogens, including tuberculosis (TB), leprosy, leishmaniasis and melioidosis, disproportionately affect people in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and are often neglected due to the poor predicted commercial return and marginalisation of affected populations. The current approach to vaccine development is to identify a part of the immune response that might be important, develop vaccines that induce that kind of immune response and then test that vaccine to see if it works, first in animal models and then in human clinical trials. This approach does not work for these complex pathogens and is slow and inefficient. In this Network we will adopt an iterative approach and develop more accurate working models of the immune response by cycles of repeated integration of data from human clinical studies and animal models across the different pathogens. The inclusion of vets working in large animal models will mean the results obtained are relevant for the development of animal vaccines as well. The inclusion of partners from LMIC where these diseases are endemic, together with partners from industry will help ensure real world relevance. Furthermore, the smaller animal models will allow us to easily look at single components of the immune system. The insight gained into immune mechanisms will allow us to design and develop vaccines more efficiently and more effectively.

This Network will provide a unique opportunity to bring together individuals working on four exemplar complex intracellular pathogens (M.tb, M.leprae, Leishmania spp. and B.pseudomallei), which share a common lifestyle as pathogens that live in a particular host cell called macrophages, induce similar end-stage pathologies in humans and are known to affect host immune and metabolic responses. The horizontal collaborations established throughout this network, together with the provision of a protected environment for early data sharing, will exploit the biological synergies between these pathogens. Positive and negative results can be disseminated rapidly, and partners working on each of the complex diseases can learn from the successes and failures of those working on the other diseases. By understanding mechanisms that lead from infection to disease, we plan to uncover common approaches to inform vaccine development strategies for these and other complex intracellular pathogens.

Key Network activities and deliverables include annual meetings for knowledge sharing; creation of a virtual network for real-time data sharing; pump-priming funding to fill knowledge gaps, and provide data to enhance the competitiveness of larger grant applications; a website and other communications to enhance collaborations and research dissemination; and career development by funding, training and mentoring of early post-doctoral and new PI researchers. All activities work towards more effective vaccine development for these important diseases, and the improvement of research capabilities in our partner LMICs.

Technical Summary

For several complex intracellular pathogens, we have an incomplete understanding of protective immunity. These diseases, including TB, leprosy, leishmaniasis and melioidosis, disproportionately affect LMICs and are often neglected due to the poor predicted commercial return and marginalisation of affected populations. The current linear approaches, which identify a component of the immune response, induce it by vaccination and evaluate efficacy in animal models and clinical trials, are flawed and have proven inefficient for intracellular pathogens. In this Network we will adopt an iterative approach and develop accurate working models of immunity by repeated integration of data from human experimental studies and animal models across the different pathogens. Veterinary vaccinologists and large animal models will facilitate the One Health agenda, and experimental medicine studies and LMIC and industrial partners will ensure relevance and translational value. The smaller animal models will provide the tools with which to easily dissect mechanisms and immune pathways. The integrated approach incorporates in-silico and in-vitro tools to delineate mechanisms, that will feed directly into vaccine design and development.

This Network will provide a unique opportunity to bring together individuals working on four exemplar complex intracellular pathogens (M.tb, M.leprae, Leishmania spp. and B.pseudomallei), which share a common lifestyle as pathogens of macrophages, induce similar end-stage pathologies (granulomatous inflammation, tissue remodeling) and alter host immune and metabolic responses. The horizontal collaborations established throughout this network, together with the provision of a protected environment for early data sharing, will exploit the biological synergies. By interrogating mechanisms that lead from infection to disease, we plan to uncover common approaches to inform vaccine development strategies for these and other complex intracellular pathogens.

Planned Impact

There are many beneficiaries of the work carried out under this Network.

The first obvious beneficiaries of this work are basic scientists, clinicians, veterinarians, epidemiologists and clinical trial investigators working in the field of vaccinology, particularly vaccines for the exemplar pathogens that are the focus of this Network. The scientific data sharing, pump-priming funding, and support to existing and new collaborations that are all supported by this Network will lead to new scientific insights which will facilitate vaccine research and development. The networking activities are designed to maximise the impact of the Network. Furthermore, the academic community will gain from the training, mentoring and knowledge sharing that will occur as part of this network.

Industrial colleagues in vaccinology will also benefit from this work, both in SMEs and in large pharmaceutical companies. Industrial involvement in these complex pathogens is currently limited, in part because of a predicted poor return on investment. This Network aims to 'de-risk' vaccine development by providing novel insights into host immunity and in sharing across pathogens any lessons learned so the broader applicability of any novel findings can be rapidly evaluated.

Ultimately, this Network will 'de-risk' vaccine development for complex intracellular pathogens and allow the design and development of vaccine candidates that are more likely to succeed. The development of effective vaccines for any of the pathogens outlined here would have a very significant impact on global mortality and morbidity, particularly in LMIC where these diseases are endemic. The health and ultimately wealth of LMIC will improve with the development of effective vaccines against these devastating pathogens.

Policy makers, in the UK and LMIC, together with the funders of scientific research, also have the potential to benefit from the work outlined in this Network. The insights gained will allow better selection and prioritisation of vaccine candidates at an earlier stage, and a greater likelihood of success.

Publications

10 25 50

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Paarwater BA (2021) Inhaled particulate matter affects immune responsiveness of human lung phagocytes to mycobacteria. in American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology

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McShane H (2020) Controlled Human Infection Models: Is it Really Feasible to Give People Tuberculosis? in American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

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Eckold C (2021) Impact of Intermediate Hyperglycemia and Diabetes on Immune Dysfunction in Tuberculosis. in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

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Parbhoo T (2020) Recent Developments in the Application of Flow Cytometry to Advance our Understanding of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Physiology and Pathogenesis. in Cytometry. Part A : the journal of the International Society for Analytical Cytology

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Kronsteiner B (2019) Diabetes alters immune response patterns to acute melioidosis in humans. in European journal of immunology

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Aguilar-López BA (2020) Mitochondria: An Integrative Hub Coordinating Circadian Rhythms, Metabolism, the Microbiome, and Immunity. in Frontiers in cell and developmental biology

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Parbhoo T (2022) Persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in response to infection burden and host-induced stressors. in Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology

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Tanner R (2019) The Humoral Immune Response to BCG Vaccination. in Frontiers in immunology

 
Description Liaison with MPs
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL https://www.validate-network.org/un-high-level-tb-meeting-2018
 
Description "Mycobacteria & Infection in Ethiopia" - Rachel Tanner/Begna Tulu
Amount £307,337 (GBP)
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Department Medical Research Foundation
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2023 
 
Description "Sepsis induced stress and Network Analysis on Pathogen Expression of stress-combat genes: the SNAPE study" (Mukhopadhyay - P033 outcome)
Amount ₹2,149,848 (INR)
Organisation Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 
Sector Public
Country India
Start 02/2023 
End 01/2026
 
Description "Understanding the effect of diabetes mellitus on immunometabolic response to Bps in Indian patients" (Mukhopadhyay - P033 output)
Amount ₹5,977,968 (INR)
Organisation Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 
Sector Public
Country India
Start 02/2023 
End 01/2026
 
Description Additional MRC funding for VALIDATE 2022
Amount £450,000 (GBP)
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2022 
End 03/2023
 
Description BSI Conference Co-hosting 2019
Amount £5,000 (GBP)
Organisation British Society For Immunology 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2019 
End 12/2019
 
Description BSI Travel Award (Rachel Tanner Fellowship)
Amount £1,000 (GBP)
Organisation British Society For Immunology 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2020 
End 02/2020
 
Description Bactivax (Rajko Reljic/Siobhan McClean/Danny Altman - member collaboration)
Amount € 4,009,373 (EUR)
Funding ID 860325 
Organisation European Commission H2020 
Sector Public
Country Belgium
Start 09/2019 
End 09/2023
 
Description Basque Government Fellowship (Julen Tomas Cortazar, P023)
Amount € 150,000 (EUR)
Organisation Basque Government 
Sector Public
Country Spain
Start 02/2020 
End 01/2023
 
Description Develop novel test for PKDL/leprosy diagnosis
Amount $399,623 (USD)
Funding ID INV-048694 
Organisation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United States
Start 11/2022 
End 10/2024
 
Description Developing a vaccine to prevent death from melioidosis in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in low- and middle-income countries
Amount £1,956,321 (GBP)
Funding ID NIHR300791 
Organisation National Institute for Health Research 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2021 
End 01/2026
 
Description Development of a mRNA vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus infections (Eduardo Ramos Sanchez Training grant outcome)
Amount R$ 362,050 (BRL)
Organisation National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) 
Sector Public
Country Brazil
Start 01/2024 
End 01/2026
 
Description Diabetes and infection: developing a network for using real-world datasets (Susanne Dunachie P016 outcome)
Amount £26,728 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Global Challenges Research Fund
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2019 
End 12/2020
 
Description Firland Foundation grant (P021)
Amount $50,000 (USD)
Organisation Firland Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United States
Start 01/2020 
End 01/2022
 
Description Flexible Research Programme Category 2: New Research Initiatives - Naomi Daniels for training visit to CSU, USA
Amount $27,000 (NZD)
Organisation Maurice Wilkins Centre 
Sector Public
Country New Zealand
Start 02/2023 
End 12/2023
 
Description Industrial Challenge Strategy Fund
Amount £600,000 (GBP)
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2018 
End 03/2019
 
Description Interaction of BCG with immune responses of leishmania in a mouse model (Javier Salguero - P003 outcome)
Amount £90,000 (GBP)
Organisation Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) 
Sector Public
Country Spain
Start 01/2019 
End 12/2022
 
Description Internal GCRF funding award to Panjaporn Chaichana (VALIDATE P007 output)
Amount £29,928 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Department Global Challenges Research Fund
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description MRC DPFS 2020 Award 'Developing a vaccine for Burkholderia pseudomallei - a Phase I Clinical Trial' (Dunachie, Brett, McShane, Chantratita; melioidosis workshop output)
Amount £3,238,214 (GBP)
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description MRC Partnership Grant for VALIDATE
Amount £2,405,549 (GBP)
Funding ID MR/Y000773/1 
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2023 
End 11/2027
 
Description Molecular dissection of leprosy immunopathology to inform the use of novel therapeutics (Gabriele Pollara P030)
Amount € 850,000 (EUR)
Organisation Dioraphte Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Netherlands
Start 04/2024 
End 04/2027
 
Description NIHR Senior Investigator - Prof Helen McShane (ref NIHR200225)
Amount £60,000 (GBP)
Funding ID NIHR200225 
Organisation National Institute for Health Research 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 03/2023
 
Description Optimization of lead melioidosis and glanders vaccine formulations (Brett, Dunachie; melioidosis workshop outcome)
Amount $733,976 (USD)
Organisation Defense Threat Reduction Agency 
Sector Public
Country United States
Start 01/2020 
End 12/2022
 
Description Preclinical development of multicomponent vaccines against melioidosis (Charles Gauthier & Siobhan McClean, VALIDATE member collaboration)
Amount $703,800 (CAD)
Organisation Canadian Institutes of Health Research 
Sector Public
Country Canada
Start 01/2022 
End 12/2027
 
Description Public Health England PhD studentship (P038)
Amount £105,100 (GBP)
Organisation Public Health England 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2020 
End 09/2023
 
Description Renewal to current funding grant for VALIDATE
Amount $2,240,966 (USD)
Funding ID Supplement to INV-031830 
Organisation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United States
Start 02/2024 
End 02/2027
 
Description Treatment abandonment and mortality in people experiencing homelessness with tuberculosis in Sao Paulo: understanding the determinant factors to guide implementation research - Ana Marcia de Sá Guimarães (One Health workshop outcome)
Amount R$ 200,000 (BRL)
Organisation National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) 
Sector Public
Country Brazil
Start 01/2024 
End 01/2026
 
Description VALIDATE Network TB Vaccine Support
Amount $1,538,836 (USD)
Funding ID INV-031830 
Organisation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United States
Start 06/2021 
End 03/2024
 
Description Wellcome Enriching Engagement - BCG100 Programme
Amount £21,103 (GBP)
Organisation Wellcome Trust 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2021 
End 11/2021
 
Title Sharing of documents with other GCRF networks 
Description Items shared with the other GCRF Vaccine Networks (HIC-VAC, Bactivac, IMPRINT, IVVN) to streamline their processes and help them with their procedural set up: VALIDATE pump-priming call template and guidance documents, training grant template and guidance (all shared with BBSRC Vector Networks as well), Network Management Board confidentiality agreement, tiered membership structure, membership and members' directory templates, member terms & conditions, first annual meeting agenda, as well as being asked for feedback and lessons learned from our various grant calls and procedures. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The sharing of our documents enabled the other networks to more quickly and easily set up their processes and procedures, and template documents. 
 
Title Oxysterol_LCMS/MS raw data_whole cell/mitochondria 
Description Mass spectrometry data (raw mass spectra files) for whole cell and mitochondrial oxysterols derived from THP-1 monocytes and macrophages, SH-SY5Y and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This is an output from VALIDATE Training Grant T022 (Khushboo Borah). 
URL https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/npcc7yrfjk/2
 
Title VALIDATE Data Sharing Portal and VALIDATE Research Data Analyst 
Description In January 2019 we launched the VALIDATE Data Sharing Portal, which aimed to facilitate and encourage the sharing of published and unpublished data amongst our members, to enable cross-comparisons (e.g. of similar assays across pathogens, or across assays for one pathogen, or across species or countries) that will accelerate vaccine development, as well as to avoid duplication of effort where unpublished negative data already exists. Our VALIDATE Research Data Analyst was in charge of the database and facilitated the uploading and analyses of data by our members. This has resulted in two publications to date: 1. Satti I et al 2022. Inflammation and immune activation are associated with risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in BCG-vaccinated infants | Nature Communications DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-34061-7 2. Tanner R et al 2020. Tools for Assessing the Protective Efficacy of TB Vaccines in Humans: in vitro Mycobacterial Growth Inhibition Predicts Outcome of in vivo Mycobacterial Infection. Frontiers in Immunology DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02983 Our Research Data Analyst, Dr Deniz Cizmeci, moved to a post-doc position at Harvard University in early May 2019 and we had significant challenges recruiting an appropriate replacement, with no appointable candidates in three rounds of advertisement. Our fourth round resulted in an appointable candidate, who started in post on 1 January 2020. This means we had a gap of eight months in this post that was beyond our control, but moved this area of the Network forwards with our new VALIDATE Bioinformatician/Computational Biologist, Dr Mirvat Surakhy, who was in post from March 2020 to Jan 2021. Sadly, it became clear that neither our Bioinformatician or the VALIDATE Data Portal were being used much by members, so we decided to close both. Before she left, Mirvat Surakhy added a comprehensive list of data resources (including free training options and free databases) to the VALIDATE website to support members (https://www.validate-network.org/bioinformatics). Instead of the data portal, we now have a list of data sets available via VALIDATE members from pump-priming/fellowship projects at https://www.validate-network.org/data-sharing for members. 20 data sets are listed as available for members, ranging from clinical trial data (e.g. microarray, RNAseq) to animal model lab data (e.g. ELISA, MGIA, flow cytometry). 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact List of data sets available via VALIDATE members from pump-priming/fellowship projects at https://www.validate-network.org/data-sharing for members. 
URL https://www.validate-network.org/data-sharing
 
Description Representation of VALIDATE at Events, Meetings, Workshops or similar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact VALIDATE has been represented at various events to promote our network and encourage new membership, as well as to speak to funding bodies about our work:

30 Jul 2017, VALIDATE Management Team Prof Helen McShane (Director), Prof Helen Fletcher (Co-Director) and Samantha Vermaak (Network Manager) attended the MRC Vaccines Network meeting in London hosted by MRC.

23-24 Nov 2017, talk about VALIDATE given by Dr Iman Satti (VALIDATE Associate) at HIC-VAC 1st Annual Meeting.

5 Dec 2017, VALIDATE Network Manager Samantha Vermaak co-hosted a stand at the BSI Congress with the other GCRF MRC-funded Vaccine Networks, with a pull-up banner and leaflets about VALIDATE, speaking to the event delegates about our Network and the benefits of membership.

15 Jan 2018, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane presented a slide about VALIDATE, and had leaflets at the event to promote VALIDATE.

18 Jan 2018, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane mentioned VALIDATE in her talk at the UK Veterinary Vaccinology Network Conference, and had leaflets.

12 Feb 2018, VALIDATE Co-Director Prof Helen Fletcher had a slide about VALIDATE in her talk at the UCL-AHRI Symposium "Towards HIV and TB elimination in South Africa".

22 Feb 2018, VALIDATE leaflets and representation (Samantha Vermaak) at University of Oxford's 'Global Research Day: Tackling International Challenges" event.

26-27 Feb 2018, VALIDATE talk by Director Prof Helen McShane at Bactivac Annual Meeting (leaflets too).

20 Mar 2018, VALIDATE talk by Network Manager Samantha Vermaak at European Melioidosis Congress. Our Associate Dr Panjaporn Chaichana (MORU, Thailand) also presented her VALIDATE-funded research and thanked VALIDATE for our funding.

23 Mar 2018, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane had VALIDATE slide at UCL/LSHTM/UCSF World TB Day Super-Symposium https://panopto.lshtm.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5ddad554-12f4-42e3-bab8-8bdc83ecbfb2

26-27 Mar 2018, VALIDATE Network Management Board member Prof Paul Kaye mentioned VALIDATE in his talk at IVVN's 1st Annual Meeting (leaflets at meeting).

19 Apr 2018, VALIDATE Co-Director Prof Helen Fletcher gave a careers talk to 30+ PhD students from LSHTM/UCL, mentioning VALIDATE.

10 May 2018, VALIDATE Research Data Analyst Dr Deniz Cizmeci gave a talk about VALIDATE at an IDDO meeting.

5 Jul 2018, VALIDATE Network Manager Samantha Vermaak gave a talk about VALIDATE at the Acid Fast Club meeting.

30 Jul 2018, Prof Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak attended the MRC GCRF Vaccine Network first year meeting.

19 Sep 2018, Network Manager Samantha Vermaak gave a talk about VALIDATE at the 9th EDCTP Forum.

25 Sep 2018, Network Manager Samantha Vermaak gave a talk about VALIDATE at the IMPRINT 2nd Annual Meeting (leaflets available too).

10 Oct 2018, Prof Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak had a teleconference with Willem Hanekom and Anne Kasmar at the Gates Foundation re VALIDATE.

12 Nov 2018, Prof Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak met with Prof Sarah Rowland-Jones, President of RSTMH, to discuss how our two networks could work together to mutual benefit.

9 Jan 2019, representation of VALIDATE by Network Director Prof Helen McShane and Network Management Board member Prof Paul Kaye at HIC-VAC Regulatory Workshop "Human challenge agents: scoping potential manufacturing guidelines".

29 Jan 2019, Director Prof Helen McShane gave a talk about VALIDATE at the TBVAC2020 Les Diablerets meeting, as part of the TBVI Symposium "TB Vaccines Global Collaboration and Recent Advances in the Field."

29 Jan 2019, Director Prof Helen McShane met with Ole Olesen at EDCTP to discuss VALIDATE.

18 March 2019, Fellow and NMB member Dr Rachel Tanner presented at the 3Rs Research Review Launch and 2018 Prize Presentation "An in vitro functional assay to replace virulent M.tb challenge for the testing of TB vaccine candidates".

20-21 March 2019, VALIDATE Manager Samantha Vermaak represented VALIDATE at Bactivac 2nd Annual Meeting in Birmingham.

29 April - 3 May 2019, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen Fletcher and member Prof Jayne Sutherland were speakers at the Vaccinology in Africa course.

16 May 2019, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane spoke at the 20th ADVAC (Advanced course of vaccinology) in Annecy, France, and had VALIDATE leaflets.

1-7 July 2019, VALIDATE member Dr Amanda Gibson and the RVC TB research group had a stand at the Royal Society Summer exhibition, with VALIDATE logo to show they are supported by our Network.

24 Sept 2019, VALIDATE NMB member Prof Jo Prior had a VALIDATE poster and chatted to the MRC/UKRI team during their visit to dstl.

7 Nov 2019, VALIDATE Fellow and NMB member Dr Rachel Tanner won 'Woman of the Future award for Science'.

18 Nov 2019, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane presented on why we need a human TB challenge model at HIC-VAC Annual Meeting.

18 Nov 2019, VALIDATE NMB member Prof Paul Kaye presented on progress with leishmaniasis challenge studies at HIV-VAC Annual Meeting.

31 Jan 2020, VALIDATE is a partner of the first World NTD Day (https://worldntdday.org/partners/).

In 2020 our representation at face-to-face meetings was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we continued to talk via Skype/Zoom/Teams to funders about possibilities for VALIDATE and VALIDATE's members:

10 Mar 2020, Samantha Vermaak and Mirvat Surakhy (VALIDATE Bioinformatician) met IDDO staff to discuss data sharing opportunities.

Aug 2020 VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane was phone interviewed by Cristiana Vagnoni (Biological Sciences and Health Advisor at UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology [POST], an office of both Houses of Parliament) for research for a four-page briefing on advances in vaccine technologies and policy approaches to stimulate and fast-track vaccine research and development 'given VALIDATE Network's role in supporting the development of vaccines for complex neglected pathogens'. Publication 29.09.21 "Advances in vaccine technologies" UK Parliament POSTnote https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0657/

21 Oct 2020, Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak talk to Hannu Laang (GTBVP).

11 Nov 2020, Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak talk to Ann Ginsberg (BMGF).

13 Nov 2020, Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak talk to Katrin Eichelberg (NIH).

Oct 2020, VALIDATE Fellow Dr Rachel Tanner presented her research project findings at the TBScience 2020 meeting (part of 51st Union World Conference on Lung Health). and was invited as a panellist to talk about her work and experience as a female scientist for the 2020 Women of the Future Awards and the 2021 Oxford Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (OxWEST) Annual Symposium.

30 Jan 2021, VALIDATE is a partner of World NTD Day (https://worldntdday.org/partners/).

9 Mar 2021, Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak talk to Ann Ginsberg (BMGF) and Ksenia Koon (CTVD) [this talk eventually led to the BMGF follow-on funding VALIDATE received].

1 Oct 2021, Helen McShane gave CTVD (virtual) workshop talk re VALIDATE-CTVD partnership & VALIDATE progree to date and future plans (including VALIDATE-CTVD joint grant calls).

28 Oct 2021, Helen McShane and Samantha Vermaak present about VALIDATE to GTBVP.

Nov 2021, Prof Susie Dunachie gave a talk about her P033 India-UK pump-priming project, as well as an intro to VALIDATE at FIS conference.

8-9 Nov 2021, Prof Samantha Sampson (VALIDATE Co-Director) gave presentation about VALIDATE at Birmingham University BBSRC Chaperonins workshop.

10 Jan 2022, Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with Mike Whelan at CEPI re possibilities to work together and for VALIDATE funding.

31 Jan 2022, Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with BMGF NTD team about VALIDATE; invited to submit small grant proposal (awarded Oct 2022).

18 Feb 2022, Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with Indian British High Commission re possibilities.

18 Mar 2022, Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with Francesco Berlanda Scorza at GSK to discuss possibilities to work together.

4 Apr 2022, Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with Fleming Fund Manager at Mott MacDonald re possibilities to work together.

26 May 2022 Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with Suzanna Francis at IAVI who are looking for potential MTBVAC trial sites (where they could build capacity). Agreed she will add VALIDATE to their grant proposal and will get back in touch if successful.

17 Aug 2022 Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with Afrigen CEO Prof Petro Terblanche about possibilities of working together (Afrigen subsequently joined VALIDATE and participated in a joint grant proposal).

17 Sept 2022 Helen McShane, Samantha Sampson & Samantha Vermaak virtual meeting with SA MRC. Samantha Sampson invited to give talk re VALIDATE at MRC's Funders Forum 20-22 November 2022 (bringing together local and global funders in the SADC region).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2023
 
Description VALIDATE 1st Annual Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact On 5-6 Sept 2017 we hosted our first VALIDATE Annual Meeting, with 35 members attending from 5 countries (UK, India, Brazil, Thailand, and Uganda), plus our 3 Scientific Advisory Board members. We awarded 3 travel scholarships to facilitate LMIC attendees. This was a fantastic opportunity for our members to meet face-to-face, many for the first time, and it gave our Management Team a chance to showcase VALIDATE and its aims, vision, and upcoming grant calls, as well as all the opportunities and benefits we provide for our members. We had talks by world-leading researchers about each of our focus pathogens (to spark cross-pathogen thinking), presentations by our industry partners (to spark academic-industry collaborations), a speed-dating session (to facilitate new collaborations and networking), as well as a session to find out what workshops our members would find useful, and a Dragons Den style session where we showcased the type of pump-priming projects VALIDATE was looking for (to encourage successful ideas and applications from our members), followed by a session that facilitated cross-pathogen discussion and idea sharing to set up future pump-priming ideas. We had positive feedback from our members about the relevance and usefulness of this first meeting, and it was a very successful couple of days for jump-starting our Network and engaging our members in this new community.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.validate-network.org/annual-meeting#collapse1-0
 
Description VALIDATE 2023 Annual Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact On 7-8 March 2023, VALIDATE held an in-person Annual Meeting for its members at BMA House, London. 95 members joined the meeting in-person, with a further >30 online (as the meeting was hybrid to increase access). Members came from 31 countries (21 LMIC): Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Japan, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, The Gambia, Tunisia, Uganda, UK, USA and Vietnam.

58% of delegates identified as female. 49% of delegates came from LMICs (many of the latter had travel grants from VALIDATE to enable them to join in-person).

The meeting was held across two days (with an ECR workshop the day before, on the 6th March) as an optional extra), and included three keynote talks, presentations by our Fellows and Pump-priming grant recipients about their projects, as well as a collaboration clinic for networking, a poster session, and a conference dinner (again, for networking).

Feedback has been extremely positive, with many members making new connections and sharing research ideas. We hope this will lead to new collaborations down the line.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.validate-network.org/annual-meeting
 
Description VALIDATE 2nd Annual Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact On 6-7th November 2018, we held our 2nd Annual Meeting in York, UK. The meeting contained updates about VALIDATE, Prof Heidi Larson (LSHTM) talking about vaccine hesitancy, our pump-priming funded projects each giving an update about their research, as well as some animated and engaged networking to get our members meeting each other and sparking collaboration ideas. We had an ECR showcase, where our network's ECRs hosted posters outlining their current research and future career and research ambitions to facilitate and spark new collaborative relationships amongst our members and to network them with both their peers and senior scientists and PIs in VALIDATE. We also had an industry showcase where our industry members had posters highlighting their research experience and expertise, again to network them in with other members.

On day 2 we held a facilitated 'Ideas Laboratory' aiming to help our delegates think big to tackle vaccine development for our focus pathogens - what breakthroughs need to be achieved, what challenges need to be overcome, what do we need to start/stop/continue doing to achieve success? The room buzzed with energy as people exchanged ideas, gradually building up to concrete research project concepts that everyone worked collaboratively on to develop further, and some of which have been submitted as pump-priming grants in our subsequent round of funding.

62 delegates from 13 countries (Brazil, Cameroon, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, UK, USA) attended, as well as two members of our SAB. We awarded 9 travel scholarships to LMIC members to encourage and facilitate their attendance (7 to female scientists), 7 or which were to ECRs.

The meeting had excellent feedback from our members. We also used the meeting to produce three short videos, showcasing VALIDATE to encourage further new members to join and to highlight the benefits of VALIDATE membership (viewable at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jnwrHLkvK-xJjYJYpnYog).

Outputs include:
- (from the 2nd AM and the VALIDATE melioidosis 2019 workshop) a new collaboration between Prof Susanna Dunachie (PI - Oxford), Assoc Prof Paul Brett (Nevada), Assoc Prof Mary Burtnick (Nevada), Prof Helen McShane (Oxford) and Prof Narisara Chantratita (Mahidol) applied for and were awarded an MRC Biomedical Catalyst DPFS / US Defense Threat Reduction Agency grant, "Developing a vaccine for Burkholderia pseudomallei - a Phase I Clinical Trial" of £3,238,214 in 2020 (to 2023). This will be the first ever human clinical trial of a melioidosis vaccine.
This new collaboration have also been awarded a Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Subaward "Developing a vaccine for Burkholderia pseudomallei - a Phase I Clinical Trial" (Brett PI, Dunachie Oxford subcontracting PI to value of $733,976.61(£524,269) to Dunachie lab) for 2020-2021, and a US Defense Threat Reduction Agency 2020-2021 award "Optimization of lead melioidosis and glanders vaccine formulations" Prof Paul Brett University of Nevada, Reno PI with sub-contract award to Dunachie, Oxford PI, (awarded in principle, awaiting contract) $733,976.61 USD (£524,269).
- During the 2nd Annual Meeting Facilitated 'Ideas Laboratory', Dr Barbara Kronsteiner-Dobramysl (University of Oxford ECR) was approached by Prof Javier Sanchez (IPN, Mexico) who also had an interest in immunometabolism and they formed a new collaboration, being successfully awarded a VALIDATE pump-priming grant in 2019.
- A new collaboration was formed between Dr Julen Tomas Cortazar and Dr Siobhan McClean (UCD), Dr Louise Gourlay (University of Milan) and Prof Susanna Dunachie (University of Oxford), which resulted in a successful pump-priming grant application in 2019.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.validate-network.org/article/validate-2nd-annual-meeting-report
 
Description VALIDATE 3rd Annual Meeting and VALIDATE-BSI 2019 Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact From 30th September to 3rd October 2019, VALIDATE held three back-to-back events, our 2nd Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop (reported separately elsewhere), the 3rd VALIDATE Annual Meeting, and a VALIDATE-BSI Conference 'Vaccine Development for Neglected Intracellular Pathogens', at The Drum at Wembley, London. We welcomed just under 90 researchers, almost all VALIDATE members, from 19 countries (13 LMIC) worldwide.

On Tuesday 1st October the VALIDATE NMB and SAB held a closed face-to-face meeting, and then we kicked off the 3rd VALIDATE Annual Meeting. VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane welcomed our 78 delegates and Network Manager Samantha Vermaak gave an update on VALIDATE's activities over the last two years, and an insight into what's ahead for the Network, highlighting our final pump-priming call that closes on 22nd October 2019. We then had talks by our most recently funded round (#3) of pump-priming projects, with Prof Myron Christodoulides (University of Southampton) on 'Protective efficacy of conserved Leishmania hypothetical proteins against visceral leishmaniasis', Dr Barbara Kronsteiner-Dobramysl (University of Oxford) on 'Metabolic reprograming of skin microenvironment for improved BCG vaccine efficacy', Dr Sasha Larsen (IDRI) on 'Development of an RNA based vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis', Dr Elena Stylianou (University of Oxford) on 'Developing a mouse model of diabetes to evaluate vaccines for TB and melioidosis', and Dr Julen Tomás Cortázar (University College Dublin) on 'Elucidating the T-cell epitopes and T-cell responses of two B.pseudomallei vaccine antigens'. These interesting talks showcasing the great research VALIDATE has coming up in the next 12 months were followed by Emilie Karafillakis (LSHTM) discussing the 'Monitoring and addressing challenging risks, rumours and reputations across the GCRF Vaccinology Networks' project co-funded by VALIDATE, IMPRINT and HIC-VAC, which aims to help all our members with vaccine hesitancy and media/online reputation management.

After lunch, our round #1 pump-priming projects (funded in November 2017) discussed their completed research, with Sally Hayward (SGUL/LSHTM) discussing 'Enhancing BCG efficacy: the Social Technology Lab Initiative', Dr Javier Salguero Bodes (PHE) 'The effect of BCG vaccination in immune responses against visceral leishmaniasis in a natural (canine) model of infection', Asst Prof Steven Smith (LSHTM) 'How do functional and metabolic characteristics of trained monocytes affect their anti-bacterial activity?', Dr Panjaporn Chaichana (MORU) 'Establishment of a functional assay panel to evaluate the role of antibodies in defence against melioidosis and tuberculosis', Dr Rajko Reljic (SGUL) 'Overcoming innate immune tolerance in the respiratory tract for optimal vaccine design', and Prof Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos (Aberystwyth University & APHA) 'Natural variation of the bovine lymph node microenvironment and its possible effect on BCG immunogenicity'. These projects had had some interesting scientific outputs that we look forward to seeing in publications soon, and some great career outcomes!

After a break, our Keynote speaker, Affiliate Prof Rhea Coler (IDRI) spoke about 'Novel TB and leprosy vaccines: from the lab bench to clinical trials' from an industry perspective. We closed the formal part of the day with a panel discussion by our funded pump-priming project awardees about their experiences applying for and receiving VALIDATE funding, and the lessons they have learned on the way.

Many of the delegates then joined a behind-the-scenes tour of Wembley Stadium, with two engaging and entertaining guides who soon had us all trying out the press box and running out of the tunnel into the stadium as two teams. The day closed with those delegates who wanted to chat further visiting nearby Zizzi's for dinner together.

The last morning of the Annual Meeting opened on Wednesday 2nd October with talks from two round #2 pump-priming projects (funded August 2018), with Mohamed Osman (University of York) on 'Identification of Leishmania donovani and Mycobacterium tuberculosis- derived proteins on the surface of infected macrophages that are associated with ADCC induction', and Prof Susie Dunachie (University of Oxford) with Asst Prof Jackie Cliff (LSHTM) and Patpong Rongkard (Oxford/MORU) on 'Vaccines to target people with diabetes: characterising the pathways of immune response to M.tuberculosis and B.pseudomallei in people with diabetes compared to non-diabetics'. We look forward to seeing the final data of these projects soon.

This session then moved into talks by our VALIDATE Fellows, with Prof Samantha Sampson (University of Stellenbosch) on behalf of Dr Jomien Mouton (who is on maternity leave) talking about 'Identification of latency associated antigens and biosignatures associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis' and Dr Rachel Tanner (University of Oxford) about 'Characterising the BCG-induced antibody response to inform the design of improved vaccines against M.tuberculosis, M. leprae and M.bovis'.

After a coffee break, we went into our final session - funder talks aiming to help our members find future funding opportunities. Prof Helen Fletcher spoke about the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund, Dr Peter Hart on Wellcome Vaccines Funding, Dr Martin Broadstock on MRC Funding Opportunities, and Dr Ceri-Wyn Thomas on BBSRC funding - all very relevant funders for our members and our research field. VALIDATE Director, Prof Helen McShane, then wrapped up a very successful 3rd Annual Meeting; congratulations to Dr Sasha Larsen (IDRI) for winning the 'Best Talk by an ECR' prize.

After lunch, we moved into the VALIDATE-BSI 2019 Conference 'Vaccine Development for Neglected Intracellular Pathogens', with Prof Helen McShane (University of Oxford/VALIDATE) and Dr Doug Brown (British Society for Immunology [BSI]) each giving a welcome address to the Conference delegates. Our first session talks centred on tissue-specific immunity, host-pathogen interactions, macrophages and the microenvironment, chaired by Prof Andrea Cooper (University of Leicester). Our first Keynote Speaker, Prof Clare Lloyd (ICL), spoke about how 'Local and environmental cues dictate the nature of the pulmonary immune response', and was followed by Dr Barbara Kronsteiner-Dobramysl (University of Oxford) on 'Diabetes alters cellular metabolism of T cells: implications for vaccine development', Dr Chidchamai Kewcharoenwong (Khon Kaen University) on ' Glibenclamide alters cytokine production of primary human monocytes from diabetic individuals against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection', and Dr Isadora Lima (FIOCRUZ) on 'Canine visceral leishmaniasis: the role of tissue-specific immunity in the progression of disease'. After a quick break, our second Keynote Speaker for this session, Prof Tracy Hussell (University of Manchester), spoke on 'Innate sensing of lung health and disease', followed by Dr Lisa Stockdale (University of Oxford) on 'Cytomegalovirus as a correlate of risk for TB?'.

Next followed an interesting 45 minutes of 3-minute turbo talks by poster hosts, with all the speakers impressively sticking to time! Asst Prof Kiran Afshan (Quaid-i-Azam University) spoke on 'Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan', Dr Anthony Afum-Adjei Awuah (KCCR) on 'Why fix when you can prevent; towards TB Vaccines Research in Ghana', Dr Federico Carlos Blanco (INTA) on 'The isolate Mb04-303 induce a proinflammatory innate immune profile and is a potential candidate for an attenuated mutant vaccine against bovine tuberculosis', Assoc Prof Mary Burtnick (University of Nevada, Reno) on 'Optimization of melioidosis subunit vaccines using Burkholderia thailandensis E555', Dr Panjaporn Chaichana (MORU) on 'Identification of protective antibody profiles for vaccine development against melioidosis', Assoc Prof Narisara Chantratita (Mahidol University) on 'Risk of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection, host immune response and biomarkers for melioidosis', Asst Prof Ganjana Lertmemongkolchai (Khon Kaen University) on 'Metformin-induced suppression of IFN-a expression via mTORC1 signalling following seasonal vaccination is associated with impaired antibody responses in diabetes mellitus', Dr Olayinka Osuolale (Elizade University) on 'Leishmaniasis in patients attending a medical health center in the rural community of Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, Nigeria', Asst Prof Vijay Kumar Prajapati (Central University of Rajasthan) on 'Evaluation of immunogenicity of the engineered multi-epitope subunit vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis infection', Dr Lok Bahadur Shrestha (BPKIHS) on 'Emerging Clinical Microbiologist looking for research opportunity in TB Vaccinology', Dr Suwarti (EOCRU) on 'Intranasal boosting regimen of Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 2-Ag85B vaccines induces superior CD4 immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis', Dr Julen Tomás Cortázar (University College Dublin) on 'Elucidating the mechanisms of protection of the Burkholderia pseudomallei antigen, BpOmpW', and Chathika Weersuriya (LSHTM) rounded the session off with 'Mathematical modelling of the epidemiological impact, cost-effectiveness and budget impact of novel tuberculosis vaccines on multi-drug resistant tuberculosis'. This energetic session was followed by a group photo, and a drinks reception with posters, before everyone headed into the Conference Dinner.

The second day of the conference on Thursday 3 October saw the start of our second session on Biomarkers, chaired by Prof Helen Fletcher (LSHTM). Our first Keynote Speaker, Dr January Weiner (Berlin Institute of Health) spoke about 'Biomarkers in tuberculosis and individual variability of the host'. January was followed by Dr Fatoumatta Darboe (MRC The Gambia) discussing 'Predicting and diagnosing TB disease in HIV-infected persons' and Dr Eduardo Milton Ramos Sanchez (USP) on 'Altered expression of microRNAs in infections with cutaneous and visceral strains of Leishmania'. After a break, our second Keynote Speaker for this session, Prof Stephen Gordon (University College Dublin) discussed the 'One Health route to exploring virulence in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex', with Hannah Painter following on 'Development of an ex vivo mycobacterial inhibition assay using murine lung cells for tuberculosis vaccine testing' and Asst Prof Tufária Mussa (Eduardo Mondlane University) on 'The fusion protein Ag85B-HBHA (FP1) elicits IFN-?, IL-2 and TNF-a in conventional T cells of Tuberculosis contacts with latent infection over time'.

After lunch, we moved into our final session 'Latest vaccine developments', chaired by Prof Helen McShane (University of Oxford). Keynote Speaker Assoc Prof Paul Brett kicked us off discussing 'Development of multivalent subunit vaccines for immunization against melioidosis', followed by Dr Sophie Rhodes (LSHTM) on 'Dose finding for new vaccines: the role of immunostimulation/immunodynamic modelling' and Dr Deepa Paliwal (University of Reading) on 'Progress in a reverse vaccinology approach for bovine TB'. After coffee, our final Keynote Speaker, Prof Mark Hatherill (University of Cape Town) spoke about 'Major advances and next steps for tuberculosis vaccine development', after which Dr Justice Boakye-Appiah discussed 'Mycolactone based vaccine against Buruli ulcer disease', and then Asst Prof Rebecca Harris (LSHTM) gave our last talk on 'Potential impact of new tuberculosis vaccines in China, South Africa and India and implications for vaccine development'. VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane gave a brief wrap-up, and the prizes - congratulations to Dr Panjaporn Chaichana for winning Best ECR Poster and Dr Sophie Rhodes for winning Best ECR Talk at the Conference - and then we were done! Four great days of thoroughly interesting talks, and fantastic networking opportunities were over.

Slides from the presentations (where the speaker was happy to share them) are accessible to our members on the VALIDATE Document Library. Seven video compilations of interviews of our members at the events were created and added to the VALIDATE YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jnwrHLkvK-xJjYJYpnYog).

Feedback from our members included:
'Great talks, great opportunity to network. Really nice, collegiate atmosphere.'
'Fantastic idea to put together M.tb, leishmania and B.pseudomallei and see cross-translational approaches in vaccine research against these pathogens.'

Outputs from this meeting include:
- Dr Mark Chambers (University of Surrey) obtained research reagent and know-how from Assoc Prof Paul Brett (University of Nevada), and has started collaborating with Emilie Karrafillakis (LSHTM Vaccine Confidence Project).
- Dr Federico Blanco (INTA, Argentina) was awarded a travel scholarship to attend the VALIDATE 2019 events. Through this attendance he (and his home research group, including Dr Fabiana Bigi) have established a collaboration with Dr Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos (APHA). They submitted an unsuccessful application for pump-priming funding to VALIDATE, but have since been awarded funds from an Argentine agency and will start their project in March 2020. In this collaborative project, Bernardo will be training the INTA researchers in techniques to study the innate bovine response to TB.
- Dr Julen Tomas Cortazar and Dr Siobhan McClean (UCD) have been collaborating with Assoc Prof Paul Brett (University of Nevada) since this Annual Meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.validate-network.org/article/validate-2019-events-report
 
Description VALIDATE 4th Annual Meeting 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact VALIDATE hosted our 4th Annual Meeting across three days in Sept, Oct and Nov 2021. This was held virtually, with each session in a different time-zone so that all VALIDATE members across the globe could access at least one day live. VALIDATE's pump-priming and Fellowship awardees presented their projects in this closed meeting for VALIDATE members. In addition each session had a welcome from a local UK High Commission/Newton representative (details below). Recordings of the talks are available via our Hub for all members to access.

Day 1 (time zone for SE Asia/Australasia): Chaired by Prof Mitali Chatterjee, IPMGER, India. ~80 attendees from 19 countries: Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Switzerland, The Gambia, Uganda, UK. Welcome address by Dr Himangi Bhardawaj MBE, Newton Fund India.

Day 2 (time zone for Europe/Africa): Chaired by Prof Samantha Sampson, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. 51 attendees from 21 countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda, UK, USA, Vietnam. Welcome address by Mr Anthony Phillipson, UK High Commission in South Africa.

Day 3 (time zone for the Americas): Chaired by Dr Maria Adelaida Gomez, CIDEIM, Colombia. 70 attendees from 22 countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Serbia, South Africa, The Gambia, Uganda, UK, USA. Welcome address by Colin Martin-Reynolds CMG, British Ambassador to Colombia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.validate-network.org/annual-meeting-2021#collapse3064486
 
Description VALIDATE BCG100 Programme 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact To celebrate the centenary, in 2021, of the first use of the Bacille Calmette-Guérin, or 'BCG', vaccine, VALIDATE ran a 'BCG100 Programme' throughout 2021. BCG is the first and, still a century later, only vaccine approved for humans that protects against tuberculosis (TB).

We marked the centenary with a programme of events and activities to raise awareness about TB, and to highlight the work researchers around the world are doing to try to develop a better vaccine against TB. The campaign also aimed to provide resources to allow our members to undertake their own public engagement.

The BCG100 project received additional funding via a small grant from the University of Oxford Enriching Engagement scheme funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The BCG100 Programme contained two aspects:
1. Online Talks: A series of online talks, aimed at the public, to raise awareness and to answer questions about vaccines, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccines for TB. We delivered two public lectures, and one school talk. Attendees were very engaged during the Q&A sessions, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The three events were (all virtual due to COVID pandemic):

'BCG Then and Now' (online public lecture) - 24 March 2021 (World TB Day)
Prof Paul Fine (LSHTM) and Prof Helen McShane (Oxford) discussed the initial development of the BCG vaccine in 1921 and its story through to the modern-day fight against TB and the future challenges researchers face in replacing BCG with a more effective vaccine. 150 attendees from around the world. Recording available on VALIDATE YouTube channel (342 views).

BCG100 For Schools - 11 May 2021
A follow up/spin-off from our very successful VALIDATE For Schools event, Prof Michele Miller and Dr Wynand Goosen from Stellenbosch University talked to students from around the world about their careers, their TB vaccine research, and their work with African wildlife. ~60 children attended mostly from the UK. Recording available on VALIDATE YouTube channel (72 views).

'TB and the use of BCG in Animals: Does it matter to people?' (online public lecture) -9 June 2021
Prof Michele Miller and Prof Glyn Hewinson discussed why effective vaccine programmes for animals are essential to the health and wellbeing of humans as well, and the challenges that we still face in making such programmes a reality. 78 people (42 non-members) attended from 53 institutions in 22 countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Malaysia , México , Nigeria, Paraguay, Poland, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka , Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, and Zambia). Recording available on our YouTube channel (173 views).

2. Video Games
The VALIDATE team and members created three educational computer games, 'BCG Adventures', aiming to raise interest and awareness of vaccine development and deployment, particularly for TB. They are fun and educational for all ages but designed as educational tools for Key Stage 3 students (11-14 years). Each game begins with an anonymous survey asking for age, country of origin and previous knowledge of vaccines and ends with a quiz about the information learnt whilst playing the game. The games are:
a. Albert and Camille's Little Lille Adventure (Little Lille) - a classic adventure game where the player explores the war-torn city of Little Lille in 1917. Taking the part of both Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin, players interact with the city's citizens to obtain the necessary supplies they need for their important vaccine research. As items are collected, players learn about the methods used to create BCG, the first vaccine against tuberculosis.
b. Vaccine Delivery Adventure (VDA) - a classic side-scrolling action game where as the player is a healthcare worker trying to overcome the challenges of delivering the BCG vaccine to communities that need it. As they deliver the vaccine in different locations, the player learns about the BCG vaccine and the challenges of protecting communities against tuberculosis.
c. Welcome to Your Immune System (WTYIS) - an arcade-style game in which the player defends the human body against an attack from Mycobacteria tuberculosis. The player can use macrophages, killer T cells and cytokine storms in the fight - and learn what these actually are and how they are used by our immune system.

The games have an accompanying document written for teachers, with further information about both the games and the content, to support them in using the games in their lessons to spark discussion.

The games are open-access and free to play (and to use, hopefully by teachers for classes and researchers for public engagement/outreach) via Itch.io and STEAM.

>27k people from 99 countries had engaged with the games within the first year. STEAM player reviews are respectively 86%, 50% and 92% positive. The games have been rated overall by players as 4.1, 3.6, 4.1 (average 3.9) out of 5 for 'fun', and 3.9, 3.4, 3.9 (average 3.7) out of 5 for 'informative'. End of game quiz scores are respectively 3.8, 2.4, and 3.1 out of 5. Clearly the Vaccine Delivery Adventure was the weaker game, and we have learned from this for future outreach efforts.

One of the aims of the BCG100 Programme was to encourage a better understanding and increased confidence in vaccines, and to encourage young people to consider a career in STEMM. Obtaining data on these was not possible in part due to lack of feedback from our main schools event and the lack of face-to-face engagement/events due to the COVID pandemic. We hope to get more data as the games are used by researchers in face-to-face public engagement as the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2024
URL https://www.validate-network.org/bcg100
 
Description VALIDATE Leprosy Video 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact As part of our activities marking World NTD Day and World Leprosy Day in 2021, we produced a short video about leprosy. In 'A Vaccine for leprosy?', Dr Hua Wang (new PI at Glasgow University) talks about leprosy, how it can be tackled and what VALIDATE is doing to develop vaccines to help eradicate the disease. The video is publically available on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fzDWmAc2YY and has had 11k views.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023,2024
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fzDWmAc2YY
 
Description VALIDATE LinkedIn 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact We have set up a closed LinkedIn VALIDATE group with three aims:
1. To make it easier for our members to connect to each other.
2. To create a further social media forum on a different platform for dissemination of relevant and interesting news as well as VALIDATE outputs, to reach members who may not be using Twitter.
3. To add a way to keep up to date with outputs and news from our members e.g. job vacancies are often posted to LinkedIn, that we can then share and also publicise on our website and Twitter accounts.

Currently 364 of our members have connected and are now following our account.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
URL https://www.linkedin.com/in/validate-network/
 
Description VALIDATE Seminars 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact VALIDATE aims to host regular seminars by our members about their research to inform members and the general public, and to spark new research ideas and collaborations. These are live-streamed online to enable all our members and the general public, no matter where they are based in the world, to join and benefit from the information, ideas, and findings being disseminated.

Our first talk was held on 6 Dec 2017, by Assoc Prof Helen Fletcher and Dr Andrea Zelmer at LSHTM, entitled "Correlates of risk of TB disease and their back-translation into animal models", and was viewed by c.43 people.

Our second talk was held on 15 Feb 2019, by Prof Helen McShane and Dr Rachel Tanner at University of Oxford, entitled "Developing a better vaccine against TB" and was viewed by 52 unique viewers.

Subsequent seminars list:
30 June 2020 'Developing a vaccine for Melioidosis: Probing the protective immune response'
By Prof Siobhán McClean and Dr Julen Tomás Cortázar (UCD, Ireland). 52 people from 16 countries registered for the event (India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, USA, UK, UCD, Ghana, Brazil, Italy, Hungary, Pakistan, Camaroon, Algeria, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia).

23 July 2020 'Melioidosis and Glanders' by Prof Mary Burtnick (University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, USA). 35 people registered to attend from 15 countries (Vietnam, India, Hungary, Ireland, UK, Sri Lanka, USA, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia).

29 July 2020 'Nonspecific factors in the immunopathogenesis of leishmaniasis' by Assoc Prof Hiro Goto and Dr Eduardo Milton Ramos Sanchez (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil). 12 people attended from 6 countries (UK, India, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Pakistan, Brazil).

01 September 2020 'Efforts to understand the immunology of bovine TB' by Prof Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos (University of Aberystwyth and APHA) and Dr Amanda Gibson (Aberystwyth University). This seminar was pre-recorded, with 57 people registering to watch the recording from 12 countries (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, UK, India, Uganda, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia).

24 November 2020 'Mtb in the host Persisters and PE&PPE Proteins' by Prof Samantha Sampson and Dr Jomien Mouton (Stellenbosch University, South Africa). 60 people joined the seminar from 18 countries (Hungary, Brazil, UK, Argentina, India, Mexico, South Korea, India, Ghana, Uganda, Italy, South Africa, Malaysia, Germany, Australia, Sri Lanka, USA, Lithuania). 135 views on YouTube.

3 December 2020 'Computational approaches in structural vaccinology - Structural biology for antigen-based therapeutics & diagnostics' by Prof Giorgio Colombo (University of Pavia, Italy) and Asst Prof Louise Gourlay (University of Milan, Italy). There were 31 attendees from 20 countries (UK, Brazil, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, Burkina Faso, UK, USA, Ghana, Kenya, India, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Italy, Malaysia, Ireland, Cameroon, Sri Lanka). 168 views on YouTube.

15 December 2020 'Immune profiles of healing in cutaneous leishmaniasis, what to target and when?' by Dr Maria Adelaida Gomez (CIDEIM, Colombia). 39 people attended from 15 countries (Nigeria, USA, India, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Vietnam, Belgium, UK, Uganda, Algeria, Pakistan, Spain, Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Lithuania). 207 views on YouTube.

11 March 2021 'Capturing and recreating recombinant polycloncal antibodies for passive immunization to treat difficult to treat infections' by Dr Sheila Keating of GigaGen. 18 people attended from 9 countries joined (Uganda, UK, Ghana, India, USA, Colombia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Thailand). 92 views on YouTube.

27 April 2021 'Addressing pathogen and human diversity' by Graham Clarke, Chair and former CEO of ImmBio. ~30 attended with 60 registered from 25 countries (Austria, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Croatia, Ethiopia, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, Nigeria , Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela). 26 views on YouTube.

15 Jul 2021 'Tuberculosis Infection and T cell-Mediated Immunity' by Dr Yupei Xiao, Medical Science Liaison, Oxford Immunotec. 64 attended with people registering from Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, México , Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela and Zambia. 439 views on YouTube.

30 November 2021 - Dr Yumi Maeda (Leprosy Research Center, NIID, Japan) 'Vaccine development and sero-diagnosis of leprosy'. 23 people attended from 14 countries (Japan, Peru, United Kingdom, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Portugal, Albania, India, South Africa, Senegal, Japan, Burkina Faso).

6 Apr 2022 "A vaccine for leishmaniasis?" by Prof Mitali Chatterjee (IPGMER, India) and Dr Mohamed Osman (University of York, UK) provided members with an overview and update on the current state of research into vaccines for leishmaniasis. 55 online attendees from 21 countries (14 LMIC). 244 views on YouTube.

18 May 2022 "A vaccine for melioidosis?" by Prof Chiranjay Mukhopadhyay and Dr Somasish Ghosh Dastidar (MAHE, India) discussed the prospects for a melioidosis vaccine. 38 online attendees from 16 countries (13 LMIC). 220 views on YouTube.

22 June 2022 - ECR Summer Showcase 1 online seminars - Dr Nguyen Ho Lam (University of Medicine & Pharmacy, Vietnam), Dr Nidhi Gupta (CURAJ, India) and Dr Rachel Tanner (University of Oxford, UK) gave short talks on their research. 36 online attendees from 16 countries (11 LMIC).

28 June 2022 "A vaccine for leprosy?" - Dr Khushboo Slater (University of Surrey, UK) and Dr Chyntia Diaz Acosta (IICS, Paraguay) discussed the prospects for a leprosy vaccine. 40 online attendees from 24 countries (14 LMIC). 202 views on YouTube.

13 July 2022 - ECR Summer Showcase 2 online seminars - Asst Prof Nargis Khan (University of Calgary, Canada), Dr Laura Sibley (UKHSA, UK) and Dr Cristian Segura-Cerda (CIATEJ, Mexico) gave short talks about their research. 31 online attendees from 25 countries (20 LMIC).

16 Nov 2022 "A flexible and efficient platform to develop a nanovaccine against Burkholderia pseudomallei" by Prof Alfredo G Torres (UTMB, USA). 31 online attendees from 13 countries (8 LMIC). 103 views on YouTube.

14 Dec 2022 "Targeting Immunometabolism in Host Defense Against Mycobacterium Tuberculosis" by Dr Luciana Balboa (CONICET, Argentina). 53 online attendees from 26 countries (16 LMIC). 138 views on YouTube.

27 Jan 2023 Prof Makram Essafi "Targeting FOXO3 transcription factor as a host-directed approach to enhance the efficacy of BCG against Mtb" & Prof Dhafer Laouini "Vaccine against human leishmaniasis: Institut Pasteur de Tunis contribution". 31 online attendees from 16 countries (9 LMIC). 64 views on YouTube.

22 Feb 2023 Dr Apichai Tuanyok (Uo Florida, USA) "One Health and a retrospective study of laboratory-based melioidosis surveillance in Songkhla and Phatthalung Provinces of southern Thailand 2014-2020". 20 attendees from 12 countries (10 LMIC). 25 views on YouTube.

29 June 2023 Dr Yumiko Tsukamoto (NIID, Japan) "Development of recombinant BCG Vaccine for tuberculosis utilizing Major Membrane Protein-II (MMP-II) antigen". 26 attendees from 13 countries (8 LMIC). 65 views on YouTube.

4 July 2023 Prof Rajko Reljic and Mr Emil Vergara (SGUL, UK) "Spore-FP1 mucosal vaccine candidate for TB". 31 attendees from 12 countries (7 LMIC). 116 views on YouTube.

12 Sep 2023 PhD Showcase (online): 8 PhD students gave an 8 minute talk to attendees. After the talks, the speakers were put in to break-out rooms with VALIDATE Investigators who gave feedback on their short talks. 45 attendees from 16 countries (10 LMIC).

15 Nov 2023 VALIDATE One Health Seminar #1: Inequitable Access to Medicines and Health Technologies in a One Health Context - Talk 1: How to Win at Hide and Seek: Utilizing Omic Approaches to Identify and Target Neglected Pathogens by Dr. Richard Burchmore, University of Glasgow; Talk 2: Unforeseen Ramifications of Antimicrobial Usage: A Case Study on Antimony by Dr. Maria Adelaida Gomez, CIDIEM. 36 attendees from 14 countries (8 LMIC) - 15 attendees were not members. 100 views on YouTube.

23 Nov 2023 VALIDATE One Health Seminar Two: Health System and Infrastructure Challenges in One Health. Talk 1: Solutions against infectious diseases in indigenous population: inter-cultural challenges in One Health with Dr Juan Dib, Universidad del Norte, Colombia. Talk 2: Impact and solutions to inequitable health care infrastructure on TB in Madagascar with Dr Niaina Rakotosamimanana, Pasteur Institute of Madagascar. 35 attendees from 18 countries (14 LMIC) - 10 attendees were not members. 18 views on YouTube.

13 Dec 2023 VALIDATE One Health Seminar Three: Cross-species Disease Transmission and Mitigation Strategies. Talk 1: The Role of Vaccination in Controlling Animal TB with Prof. Eamonn Gormley, UCD, Ireland. Talk 2: Tip of the Iceberg: TB in South African Wildlife with Prof. Michele Miller, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. 43 attendees from 21 countries (11 LMIC) - 8 were non-members. 24 views on YouTube.

17 Jan 2024 Fellowship Q&A by Samantha Vermaak. 40 delegates. 100 views on YouTube.

7 Feb 2024 Profs Mitali Chatterjee (IPGMER, India) & Ahmed Abd El Wahed (Leipzig University, Germany) presented VALIDATE's BMGF-funded project "Developing novel 'point of need' molecular tools for monitoring treatment efficacy in Skin NTDs". 34 delegates from 17 countries (10 LMIC). 42 views on YouTube.

Nearly all the talks were recorded and these recordings are available to VALIDATE members via the VALIDATE Portal; open-access talk recordings are also shared on the VALIDATE YouTube Channel.

In addition, in 2020, Dr Julen Tomas Cortazar (UCD, Ireland) made three videos talking about his research on T-cell inducing vaccines, in English, Spanish and Basque respectively. These have 525 YouTube views in total.

One of our ECRs, Wilfred Aniagyei (KNUST/KCCR) said 'VALIDATE online seminar gave me insight into other research methodologies that helped with my current research' while Christine Petersen (University of Iowa) commented 'VALIDATE has provided some wonderful seminars and other platforms for scientific discourse during this year [2020] of limited ability to otherwise interact with our scientific peers. This has been very helpful to maintain productivity and connection.'

Prof Samantha Sampson's seminar led to an invitation to speak at University of Surrey, which has led to several follow-on conversations about possible collaborations (with Suzie Hingley-Wilson, VALIDATE member). One of her PhD students has been assisting one of Prof Sampson's MSc students with protocol development.

Representative views of the seminars by members in 2024 include Dr Sara Savic (Novi Sad, Serbia) saying "I have joined several online webinars & an in-person workshop organised by VALIDATE - this all has lifted my perspective of Leishmaniasis in the world to a whole different level", and MSc student Sarah Nyangu (Stellenbosch University, South Africa) saying "Tremendous impact on my career, the seminars and webinars have been very helpful with acquiring knowledge and keeping myself updated with the latest information in the field of TB and TB vaccine research."
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
URL https://www.validate-network.org/seminars
 
Description VALIDATE Twitter account 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact On 28 July 2017 we launched our VALIDATE Twitter account @NetworkVALIDATE. We post regularly about news, opinions and activities relevant to our Network members, including grant calls, training opportunities, events, journal articles, opinion pieces, tips/advice, and disease statistics from VALIDATE and relevant external organisations, to promote both our activities and items that could help our members advance their research and careers - or inform general public followers about our research, vaccine development, vaccine hesitancy etc. We highlight papers authored by our members, raising their profile and potential citations, as well as papers relevant to our members' research, making keeping up to date with new research in the field easier for our members. We also have social media engagement activities for World Leprosy Day, World NTD Day, International Day of Women & Girls in Science, World TB Day, Immunization Week and others. To date we have 6,949 posts and 1,239 followers, which we hope will continue to increase, forming an engaged community.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
URL https://twitter.com/NetworkValidate
 
Description VALIDATE YouTube Channel 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact On 4 Dec 2018 VALIDATE launched its You Tube Channel, with videos of our members talking about VALIDATE and the benefits of membership, to promote our network in another format and to hopefully encourage new members to join VALIDATE. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jnwrHLkvK-xJjYJYpnYog.

We added 7 further videos of member interviews taken during our 3rd Annual Meeting and ECR workshop (2019) e.g. 'How VALIDATE is accelerating vaccine development', 'How VALIDATE is capacity building' as well as overview videos of our Annual Meetings and the benefits of being a VALIDATE member.

In 2020/2021 we expanded our Channel aims to include educating the general public about VALIDATE's focus pathogens and research, and encouraging teenagers towards careers in STEM. We added an interview with Prof Helen McShane for World TB Day, three videos (English, Spanish, Basque) by Dr Julen Tomas Cortazar explaining his research, a recording of our first VALIDATE for Schools talk by Prof Helen McShane and Dr Rachel Tanner (attended live by >200 school kids), three open-access scientific seminars by VALIDATE members based in South Africa, Italy and Colombia, and a video by Dr Hua Wang about leprosy for World Leprosy Day 2021. The latter is our most successful video, with 6.3k views.

In 2021/2022 we added recordings of our two BCG100 public talks, 3 industry open-access seminars, a further VALIDATE for Schools recorded talk, two trailers for our BCG Adventure computer games, and an original video 'A few things you might not know about Leishmaniasis' (as part of World NTD Day 2022), as well as further member scientific open-access seminars.

In 2023 & 2024 we have continued to add recordings of our open-access seminars, as well as video interviews of delegates (VALIDATE members) at the VALIDATE 2023 Annual Meeting. We currently have 54 videos available, with 178 subscribers to our YouTube channel, and >10k views of our most popular video ("A vaccine for leprosy?").
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
URL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jnwrHLkvK-xJjYJYpnYog
 
Description VALIDATE for Schools 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact On 9 December 2020 over 200 students in schools around the UK joined VALIDATE members Prof Helen McShane and Dr Rachel Tanner on Microsoft Teams for the first VALIDATE for Schools virtual event. Helen and Rachel talked to GCSE and A Level students about their research, tuberculosis vaccine development and immunology, and their careers in STEMM. They also responded to some fantastic questions from the students on subjects that ranged from scientist salaries to CRISPR. The event had fantastic feedback from the teachers involved (who would like more such events). The talk was recorded and is available on the VALIDATE YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrp0JnQ2LI.

ON 11 May 2021, Prof Michele Miler and Dr Wynand Goosen (Stellenbosch University) gave a further VALIDATE for Schools virtual talk to ~60 children.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrp0JnQ2LI
 
Description VALIDATE in the spotlight - in writing 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact In 2020, VALIDATE Fellow Dr Rachel Tanner took part in BSI's 'a day in the life of a vaccine researcher' blog. She was also interviewed for a 500WomenScientists article, and contacted by school student in California who interviewed her for a presentation on 'scientists that don't fit the conventional mold'

12 May 2020, '10 minutes with Prof Helen McShane' in BMJ Leader bmjleader.bmj.com/content/early/2020/05/10/leader-2020-000268

29 Apr 2020, VALIDATE highlighted in BSI's 'protecting the world' report on UK vaccinology www.immunology.org/sites/default/files/BSI_Celebrate_vaccines_report_2020_FINAL_0.pdf 29.04.20

Apr 2020, World Immunization Week, VALIDATE is part of BSI's Instagram campaign www.immunology.org/news/world-immunisation-week-2020

11 Feb 2020, VALIDATE blog post for International Day of Women and Girls in Science, chatting to five of our female members about their research, inspiration, and advice/tips they would give to girls wanting to aim for a career in scientific research: www.validate-network.org/article/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2020

31 Jan 2020, VALIDATE First World NTD Day blog post, discussing NTDs and new NMB member Dr Alvaro Acosta-Serrano's research on leishmaniasis: www.validate-network.org/article/world-ntd-day-2020

27 Jan 2020, VALIDATE World Leprosy Day blog post, flagging the news and views for this day from around the world: www.validate-network.org/article/world-leprosy-day-2020

22 Mar 2019, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane spoke to Phys.org ahead of World TB Day https://phys.org/wire-news/314702574/a-new-tb-vaccine-is-within-reach-prof-helen-mcshane.html

8 Mar 2019, VALIDATE blog post for International Women's Day 2019 interviewing 5 of our female scientists https://www.validate-network.org/article/international-womens-day-2019

27 Jan 2019, VALIDATE World Leprosy Day blog post, talking to two ECR researchers working on leprosy vaccine development: www.validate-network.org/article/world-leprosy-day-2019

26 Nov 2018, VALIDATE featured in RSTMH newsletter

18 Jun 2018, VALIDATE Director Helen McShane spoke to www.openaccessgovernment.org about "The current status of tuberculosis vaccine development" https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/current-status-tuberculosis-vaccine-development/46726/

30 Apr 2018, VALIDATE blog post for World Immunization week https://www.validate-network.org/article/vaccineswork-world-immunization-week-vaccines-validate

5 Dec 2017, VALIDATE featured in a blog post "Building international partnerships to tackle disease" on the University of Oxford Science blog, which has an extensive worldwide reach. http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog/building-international-partnerships-tackle-disease

22 Nov 2017, VALIDATE featured in article on GCRF Networks by Martin Broadstock for BSI Immunology News magazine https://www.immunology.org/news/the-network-effect-promoting-collaborative-research?utm_content=buffer15fca&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

24 Oct 2017, VALIDATE launch featured on TBVI website 'news' https://www.tbvi.eu/new-international-vaccine-rd-network-validate/
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021
 
Description VALIDATE in the spotlight - media 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact 24 Mar 2018, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane gave an interview for World TB Day at BBCOxford Radio https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p060zj9g 1:02:30 for the headline; 1:09:05 for the interview.

29 Apr 2020, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane featured in The Guardian podcast 'What has the BCG vaccine got to do with COVID-19' www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2020/apr/30/covid-19-what-has-the-bcg-vaccine-got-to-do-with-it-podcast.

2020, VALIDATE Fellow, Dr Rachel Tanner was filmed in the lab for the YouTube 'Life in a Day' movie directed by Ridley Scott and Kevin McDonald which premiered at Sundance Film Festival (her submission was featured as part of the press release).

11 Dec 2020, VALIDATE Director Prof Helen McShane interviewed on Sky News re vaccine hesitancy studies (relating to COVID): https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1337320456211361794

In 2020 VALIDATE Fellow Dr Rachel Tanner took part in 'I'm a Scientist, Stay at Home!' to help school pupils stay connected with STEM during the lockdown. Rachel was invited as a panellist to talk about her work and experience as a female scientist for the 2020 Women of the Future Awards and the 2021 Oxford Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (OxWEST) Annual Symposium.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2020
 
Description VALIDATE leishmaniasis video 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 'A few things you might not know about leishmaniasis' video created and added to VALIDATE YouTube channel for World NTD Day 2022. 458 views to date.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023,2024
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgchaulbtrY
 
Description VALIDATE website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact On 28 July 2017 we launched the VALIDATE Network website www.validate-network.org. The website publicises our network, our members (including a searchable members' directory to facilitate new collaborations), our funding opportunities, events, our mentoring scheme, projects and grants we have funded, seminars and workshops provided, external funding and training/job opportunities relevant to our members, and a weekly round-up of new grant calls/jobs/training/events and news. According to Google Analytics, to date the website has been viewed by 149k users from 215 countries/territories, with around 4,000 users per month in 2023.

Our aim is to make our website a central 'go to' hub for all relevant information for researchers working in our field (from academia, industry, government and non-profits), and for it to act as a hub of reliable information about vaccine research and our focus diseases for the general public and other interested parties. In 2018 we had 3 LMIC ECR members feedback outputs from our website information - one saw the Newton Travel Award listed in our external grants list and applied for and was awarded a grant; a second ECR member (from Uganda) applied for the "Data Management for Early Career Researchers" workshop in Nairobi that we listed in our training opportunities and was given a place and has now attended this course; while a 3rd ECR member from Cameroon applied for the Oxford University summer internship 2019 programme, having seen it advertised on the VALIDATE website. A further UK PhD (medical) student, when asked about any impact on career/research commented 'Easy notification of funding and training opportunities via validate website'.

In 2020 we also added a VALIDATE 'Portal' where members can access shared documents (including recordings of closed seminar, Annual Meeting presentation slides, shared standardised SOPs and protocols).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
URL http://www.validate-network.org
 
Description VALIDATE work experience 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact In February 2019 a Six Form student from a school in Surrey attended two days' work experience/shadowing at the Jenner Institute, visiting the laboratories and the clinical trial clinics and talking to staff about their research and careers in science, after contacting VALIDATE with a request to visit. This hopefully helped Zack with choosing his degree and future career plans.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2019