SAVE THE DATES!!
The next edition of ARVAC, the free online Alumni Refresher Vaccinology Course will be held twice on:
- Tuesday 2 to Thursday 4 September 2025, from 10 am to 12:20 PM (CET, Geneva Time) for the "Morning Session"
And
- Monday 8 to Wednesday 10 September 2025, from 3 PM eto 5:20 PM (CET, Geneva Time) for the "Afternoon Session"
The draft Programme 2025 is available below on this page.
Registration will open soon. Stay tuned!
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.
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 one of the ICAVT vaccinology courses (Alumni). 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 for 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
Every year, the course programme is submitted to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME®). Last year in June 2024, ARVAC has been accredited with 5.5 credits (Event reference LEE/2024/00621 for Week 1: 4-6 June 2024 and LEE/2024/00622 for Week 2: 11-13 June 2024). The course organizer (ADVAC at the University of Geneva) checks 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.
DRAFT PROGRAMME ARVAC 2025
MORNING WEEK: 2-4 SEPTEMBER 2025
| TUESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2025 |
| Chair - TBC |
| Lecture 1: Updates on RSV (including adults) and GBS vaccines |
| Lecture 2: Updates on Enteropathogens vaccines (Rota, Noro, ETEC, Shigella…) |
| Lecture 3: Updates on PCV |
| WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2025 |
| Chair - TBC |
| Lecture 4: Artificial Intelligence in the Vaccinology Development |
| Lecture 5: Developing Vaccines for outbreaks (including pandemics) |
| Lecture 6: Climate Change and vaccines (through the example of arboviruses?) |
| Panel 1: What’s new on the vaccine policy and country support front? |
| THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2025 |
| Chair - TBC |
| Panel 2: Financial support to countries? (consequences of Aid cuts on immunization coverage, mortality and VPDs) |
| Lecture 7: Prioritization and Optimization of the immunization schedule |
| Lecture 8: Vaccine market, market shaping and regional initiatives for vaccine production |
| Lecture 9: Human Challenge Trials |
AFTERNOON WEEK: 8-10 SEPTEMBER 2025
| MONDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2025 |
| Chair - TBC |
| Lecture 1: Updates on RSV (including adults) and GBS vaccines |
| Lecture 2: Updates on Enteropathogens vaccines (Rota, Noro, ETEC, Shigella…) |
| Lecture 3: Updates on PCV |
| TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2025 |
| Chair - TBC |
| Lecture 4: Artificial Intelligence in the Vaccinology Development |
| Lecture 5: Developing Vaccines for outbreaks (including pandemics) |
| Lecture 6: Climate Change and vaccines (through the example of arboviruses?) |
| Panel 1: What’s new on the vaccine policy and country support front? |
| WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2025 |
| Chair - TBC |
| Panel 2: Financial support to countries? (consequences of Aid cuts on immunization coverage, mortality and VPDs) |
| Lecture 7: Prioritization and Optimization of the immunization schedule |
| Lecture 8: Vaccine market, market shaping and regional initiatives for vaccine production |
| Lecture 9: Human Challenge Trials |
Lecturers & Panelists 2025 (TBC)
Archives : ARVAC 2024 PROGRAMME
RESOURCES MORNING WEEK: 4-6 JUNE 2024
| TUESDAY 4 JUNE 2024 |
| Chair - Kamel Senouci (University of Geneva) |
Lecture 1: Updates on Meningitis Vaccines - Marie-Pierre Preziosi (WHO)  Presentation  Video |
| Lecture 2: Updates on NITAGs - Benjamin Kagina (University of Cape Town) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 3: Challenges of adult immunization - Pierre Van Damme (university of Antwerp) Presentation Video |
| WEDNESDAY 5 JUNE 2024 |
| Chair: Ombeva Malande (East Africa Centre for Vaccines and Immunization, ECAVI) |
| Lecture 4: Reaching zero-dose children - Ranjana Kumar (Gavi) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 5: Vaccines and AMR - Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz (WHO) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 6: New clinical/regulatory framework: acceleration of vaccine licensure - Jakob Cramer (CEPI) Presentation Video |
| Panel 1: What’s new on the vaccine policy and country support front? - Marta Tufet Bayona (GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance), Presentation Video, Joachim Hombach (WHO) Presentation Video |
| THURSDAY 6 JUNE 2024 |
| Chair - Naveen Thacker (International Paediatric Association) |
| Panel 2: Update on vaccines confidence - Naveen Thacker (International Paediatric Association), Angus Thomson (Irimi) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 7: Maternal Immunization - Clare Cutland (University of the Witwatersrand) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 8: Lower-efficacy vaccines: what is acceptable and how to integrate more public health interventions and vaccines (e.g Malaria vaccine) - Hanna Nohynek (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 9: Updates on Dengue and Chikungunya vaccines - Anna Durbin (Johns Hopkins University) Presentation Video |
RESOURCES AFTERNOON WEEK: 11-13 JUNE 2024
| TUESDAY 11 JUNE 2024 |
| Chair - Clare Cutland (ALIVE, University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Lecture 1: Updates on Meningitis Vaccines - Marie-Pierre Preziosi (WHO) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 9: Updates on Dengue and Chikungunya vaccines - Anna Durbin (Johns Hopkins University)Presentation Video |
| Lecture 3: Challenges of the adult immunization - Pierre Van Damme (university of Antwerp) Presentation Video |
| WEDNESDAY 12 JUNE 2024 |
| Chair - Rodolfo Villena (University of Chile) |
| Panel 1: What’s new on the vaccine policy and support front? - Aurelia Nguyen (GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance) Presentation Video, Christoph Steffen (WHO) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 4: Vaccines and AMR - Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz (WHO) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 5: New clinical/regulatory framework: acceleration of vaccine licensure - Jakob Cramer (CEPI) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 6: Reaching zero-dose children - Chris Wolff (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) Presentation Video |
| Doc : Questions to Aurelia Nguyen And Christoph Steffen unanswered during the course |
| THURSDAY 13 JUNE 2024 |
| Chair : Denise Naniche (ISGlobal, Spain) |
| Panel 2: Update on vaccines confidence - Naveen Thacker (International Paediatric Association) Steve Lewandowsky (Bristol University) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 7: Maternal Immunization - Clare Cutland (University of the Witwatersrand) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 8: Lower-efficacy vaccines: what is acceptable and how to integrate more public health interventions and vaccines (e.g Malaria vaccine) - Hanna Nohynek (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) Presentation Video |
| Lecture 2: Updates on NITAGs - Benjamin Kagina (University of Cape Town) Presentation Video |