Vaccination research is always evolving, harnessing new technologies to help reduce the burden of several diseases or to eliminate them from our communities. Despite these scientific advances, public trust in vaccines and prevention strategies has not kept up, creating a critical gap that demands attention. The Active Citizenship Network—the EU branch of the Italian NGO Cittadinanzattiva—has organized an EU workshop in Brussels on 3 December 2025 to explore the next frontiers of vaccine development. The gathering will assemble experts and civil society leaders to address vaccine research and development, innovation and investment priorities, including new platforms (mRNA, DNA) and delivery methods, and approaches for returning data to clinical study participants.
A key focus will be the Return of Individual Participant Data (RoIPD) from clinical studies, drawing on the FACILITATE project, an Innovative Health Initiative initiative. This framework proposes a participant-centred, ethical, and legally grounded approach to return individual data to clinical study participants, illustrating how RoIPD can strengthen trust, improve health literacy, and enhance the quality of vaccine research.
The initiative aims to provide accurate information on health innovation, promote a culture oriented toward prevention, and counterbalance the constant references to new pandemics, future scenarios which, while possible, are rarely accompanied by messages about what is being done to prevent them. The risk is that discussions focus only on new global threats and not on the advances in research that represent the main source of hope for millions of people.
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The Mission Board on Vaccination in Europe, which includes the Active Citizenship Network alongside other expert and patient groups, has called for Europe to use the next Multiannual Financial Framework to invest in prevention and immunization as drivers of Europe’s future competitiveness, productivity, and resilience. Professor Walter Ricciardi, Chair of the Mission Board on Vaccination in Europe, states that vaccination is one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools we have, saving lives, strengthening economies, and enabling societies to recover and succeed in the face of crisis. The group references the European Charter of Patients’ Rights, which ensures access to preventive measures and innovative treatments without cost barriers.
The Brussels event will explore how vaccine studies can be redesigned with patients at their core. Traditional research models often treat participants as passive contributors, but emerging approaches, such as RoIPD, aim to create a more collaborative dynamic. The #VaccinAction2025 initiative, part of the workshop’s agenda, has equipped leaders from European patient advocacy organizations with these methods. The initiative is tailored and reserved by invitation to leaders of patients’ associations, Patients’ Advocacy Groups (PAGs), and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from different Member States already engaged in the Active Citizenship Network’s initiatives on the topic. Every year, vaccines save millions of lives around the world, serving as one of the most effective tools to prevent serious infectious diseases.
