The Ideas Lab brought together 30 researchers from across the University of Michigan to develop innovative approaches that address vaccine equity in low-income countries. The Ideas Lab took place at the Michigan League from February 28 through March 2, 2022.
The Center for Global Health Equity has allocated up to $3 million for transformative, high-impact project ideas developed through the workshop that can be co-designed and implemented with global partners.
Successful teams are now in the planning and co-design phase with their global collaborators. Funding projects will be announced in fall 2023.
Complex Problem, Complementary Approaches
The challenges of ensuring equitable access to vaccines are pervasive and complex. The current pandemic has further highlighted the significant health, financial, and geopolitical costs of inequitable access to vaccines around the world. Potential solutions must address not only the science of developing vaccines but the policies, economic factors, and social structures that relate to vaccine financing, production, distribution, access, and hesitancy.
Vaccine Equity Insights
Many of our Ideas Lab participants are new to global vaccine work, bringing their diverse expertise and passion to this vital initiative. Some of our participants and advisors are already engaged in this work specifically, including recent publications:
- Vaccination Timeliness Is Vital to Reducing Childhood Mortality
- Vaccine Access and Vaccine Hesitancy Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
- Can New Vaccine Technologies Really Increase Vaccination Coverage?
- Rapidly Urbanizing Communities in Middle-Income Countries Could Be Sources of Vaccine Hesitancy
- If We Cannot Solve Vaccine Equity Globally, We Cannot Escape Variants Locally
- Vaccine Inequity Is Nothing New, but New Approaches Are Needed
Provocateur: Joseph Mathew, MD
Dr. Joseph L. Mathew is professor of Pediatric Pulmonology at the Advanced Pediatrics Centre of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India. Mathew has expertise in pediatric respiratory disease, vaccination and immunization for population health, and evidence-based healthcare decision making.
Provocateur: Rajeev Venkayya, MD
Dr. Venkayya leads a vertically-integrated business developing vaccines for dengue, norovirus, and Zika. Venkayya serves as an independent member of the board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Provocateur: Patricia García, MPH, MD
Dr. Patricia J. García is a professor in the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru. She has served as Peru’s Minister of Health, dean of the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University, and chief of the Peruvian National Institute of Health.
Advancing Equity
Addressing vaccine inequity could include creating novel solutions in the following areas:
- Public policies, social structures, and education that relate to vaccine access and vaccine hesitancy
- Technical aspects of vaccine development and delivery—manufacturing, quality, supply chains
- Economic and financial aspects of vaccine development and distribution
- Relationships between vaccinations and various health outcomes
- Sociodemographic predictors of vaccination
- Spatial distribution of vaccination at varying levels of resolution
Ideas Lab in Pictures
Click or tap to view slideshow
Abram Wagner and Matt Boulton of the School of Public Health and Pascale Leroueil of the University of Michigan William Davidson Institute discuss vaccine equity during the Ideas Lab.
Brian Zikmund-Fisher of the School of Public Health keeps multiple projects moving forward—and up!
Basit Zafar, Magaret Frye, Seda Saluk, and Elizabeth Roberts of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts discuss multidisciplinary approaches to vaccine equity during the Ideas Lab.
Chuanwu Xi of Michigan Public Health pitches a novel vaccine equity solution while Holly Jarman (Michigan Public Health) and Basit Zafar (LSA) look on.
Emily Treleaven of the Survey Research Center (ISR) and Emily Martin of the School of Public Health work on a project.
Shobita Parthasarathy and John Ayanian of the Ford School of Public Policy discuss policy challenges around vaccine equity during the Ideas Lab.
Demonstrating the intensive work of rapid ideation are Center scholar Geoffrey Siwo, Henry Wang of Michigan Engineering, and Lisa Lapeyrouse, associate professor of Health Science and Administration, University of Michigan–Flint
Abram Wagner of Michigan Public Health, Caroline Hogan of the Institute for Health Policy and Innovation, and Andrew Shuman of Michigan Medicine talk vaccine-preventable diseases and public policy.
Rahul Ladhania of Michigan Public Health and Antonios Koumpias, assistant professor of Economics at University of Michigan–Dearborn, discuss new vaccine equity ideas.
Questions?
Email project manager Kristina Rice.
Learn More
Overview
The Ideas Lab will foster the creation of interdisciplinary teams and cutting-edge ideas for transformative research, interventions, or other pilot initiatives to advance vaccine equity for populations in low and lower-middle income countries.
Faculty advisors will work with participants to develop pre-proposal ideas for potential Center funding. Groups with promising ideas will be invited to co-design their initiatives with relevant global partners and receive launch funds from the Center. The Center has allocated up to $3 Million for Ideas Lab projects.
Eligibility
All U-M faculty, particularly early-career faculty, from the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn campuses are encouraged to apply. We welcome participants from all disciplines who are interested in engaging in the challenges of global vaccine equity. Previous experience in vaccine-related research is not required.
Funding
The Center has allocated up to $3 million for transformative ideas developed by participants in this U-M Ideas Lab on Global Vaccine Equity. U-M teams formed during the Ideas Lab will be invited to co-design a full project with a global partner and receive Center funding for their initiatives.
Advisors
Eight faculty advisors from a variety of disciplines will work with participants throughout and following the event, helping to shape and strengthen the proposals that emerge:
Matthew Boulton, MD, MPH
School of Public Health
Senior Associate Dean for Global Public Health
Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Ravi Anupindi, PhD, MS
Michigan Ross
Professor of Technology & Operations
Faculty Director, Center for Value Chain Innovation
Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD
School of Public Health
Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education
Shobita Parthasarathy, Phd, MA
Ford School of Public Policy
Professor of Public Policy
Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy program
Diane Harper, MD, MPH, MS
School of Medicine, College of Engineering
Professor of Family Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Lisa Prosser, PhD
School of Public Health, School of Medicine
Director, Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center
Associate Vice President for Research - Health Sciences, U-M Office of Research
Professor of Health Management and Policy
Professor of Pediatrics, Medical School
John Ayanian, MD, MPP
Center for Global Health Equity
Director, Institute for Health Policy and Innovation
Senior Advisor, Center for Global Health Equity
Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy, Medical School
Professor of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health
Professor of Public Policy, Ford School of Public Policy
Joseph Kolars, MD, MACP
Center for Global Health Equity
Senior Associate Dean for Education and Global Initiatives, Medical School
Director, Center for Global Health Equity
Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Professions Education, Medical School
Facilitators
The workshop will be facilitated by Knowinnovation, an experienced organization that specializes in accelerating scientific innovation through deliberate creativity, harnessing the power of disparate fields, engaging diverse teams to extend the frontiers of science. Knowinnovation is widely recognized as a leader in designing and facilitating events that create cross-disciplinary collaborations and build scientific communities. Their experience includes running Ideas Lab workshops for the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Biosciences Initiative at U-M.