ARVAC - Alumni course

The next edition of ARVAC will be held in 2026.

Video recordings, presentations and written answers to questions not adrressed live are available at the end of this page.

Context

ICAVT is a partnership of more than 30 vaccinology courses worldwide. Those trainings have a different history, background, content and audiences but they all have trained, over the years, altogether, thousands of experts in the area of vaccinology.

However, alumni from those various trainings have constantly requested to attend again the trainings they attended initially or other ones to update their knowledge as the vaccinology area is in constant evolution and changes thanks to a strong research pipeline and a rich and diverse implementation community.

Instead of allowing alumni to attend the trainings they already completed again or attend another course and therefore reduce the number of new experts trained, ICAVT members have agreed to jointly develop a single common refresher course dedicated to their alumni. This course provides annually the alumni from various background with lectures on the last updates on immunization and on new topics key for their daily activities.

Course objectives

The course aims at providing a refresher course and latest updates on immunization and vaccines to the alumni of the various existing advanced vaccinology training courses worldwide and their partners already trained in vaccinology/immunology.

The alumni refresher vaccinology course will provide updates in the following key areas of vaccinology: immunology, vaccine development, clinical trials, regulatory processes, vaccine-specific issues including new vaccines, vaccination strategies and policies, programme implementation, humanitarian emergencies, social, economic, political and ethical issues, financing, and communications. It will also provide lectures on new areas of the discipline uncovered by previous courses.

Who can attend?

This new course is targeting health care experts which have already been trained in vaccinology/immunology (ICAVT Alumni and partners). If you haven't been trained yet in vaccinology, we advise you to visit the ICAVT Vaccinology Trainings catalogue to identify courses you can apply to.

Format

The exact same online course is offered twice to allow participants from all over the world to attend (Morning + Afternoon sessions scheduled on 2 different weeks):

Each week, 3 half-day sessions (3-4 hours each) are offered.
Each session of 3-4 hours contains 3 to 4 lectures of 35 minutes each.
Each lecture consists in a 25-minutes lecture and a 10 minutes live discussion between the attendants and the lecturer, animated by the chair of the session (an ICAVT member)
Alumni and ICAVT partners can ask questions using the Chat.

Accreditation

The ARVAC programme has been submitted for accreditation to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME®). Up to 6 CME credits can thus be earned by the attendants of each session (Morning week : EACCME® event reference LEE/2025/01284; and Afternoon week : EACCME® event reference LEE/2025/01286).

The course organizer (ADVAC at the University of Geneva) will check the attendance during the course to be able to deliver the Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits adequately. Participants in the Course should be able to convert these credits through their respective professional bodies. For more imformation on the mutual recognition of credits please consult the page "collaboration" on https://eaccme.uems.eu/

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more info.

PROGRAMME ARVAC 2025

MORNING WEEK: 2-4 SEPTEMBER 2025 - EACCME® event reference LEE/2025/01284

TUESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2025

Opening By Kamel Senouci, Director ADVAC, ICAVT Secretariat

Chair - Ombeva Malande, Moi University, East African Center for Vaccines and Immunization, Kenya

Lecture 1: Updates on PCV, Brad Gessner, EPIVAC Consulting, USA