On 3 December 2025, Active Citizenship Network – the EU branch of the Italian NGO Cittadinanzattiva – will hold a workshop in Brussels to discuss the next frontiers of vaccine development and vaccination policy. The event brings together experts and representatives of civil society organizations to explore where research is heading and why prevention needs more investment now.
Vaccination research has evolved constantly since the first vaccine was developed in 1796. Scientists continue to search for new ways to protect people against infectious diseases, often through newer platforms like mRNA and DNA technologies.
The workshop will cover three main areas: key stages of vaccine research and development, innovation and investment priorities for new platforms and delivery methods, and approaches for returning clinical study data to participants while engaging them in the research process.
On the data-return topic, the organizers will draw on the FACILITATE project, an Innovative Health Initiative that defines a participant-centered, ethical and legally grounded framework for the Return of Individual Participant Data (RoIPD) from clinical studies. The approach, described as “by design” patient-centered and flexible, aims to show how returning individual data can strengthen trust, improve health literacy, and enhance the quality of vaccine research across different settings.
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They also try to counterbalance the constant talk about future pandemics. The organizers argue that while new global threats are possible, messages about what is being done to prevent them rarely accompany those warnings. The risk, according to the group, is that the public hears only about threats and not about the advances in medical and public health research that represent hope for millions.
Cittadinanzattiva–Active Citizenship Network has long pushed for a life-long immunization approach in Italy and across Europe. The organization says the workshop will explore vaccination policy from a public policy perspective, not a product-based one.
Vaccines save millions of lives every year and are among the most effective tools for preventing serious infectious diseases. Recently, the Mission Board on Vaccination in Europe – a coalition of public health experts, patient organizations, civil society leaders, academics, and industry actors – called on Europe to use the next Multiannual Financial Framework to invest in prevention and immunisation as drivers of competitiveness, productivity, and resilience.
“Vaccination is one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools we have,” said Professor Walter Ricciardi, Chair of the Mission Board. “It saves lives, strengthens economies, and enables societies to recover and succeed in the face of crisis. Now is the time to double down on prevention.”
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The group says it translates that message into action in line with the European Charter of Patients’ Rights, particularly the right to preventive measures and the right to innovation. The charter states that each individual has the right to access innovative procedures regardless of economic or financial considerations, and that health services must promote and sustain research, with results adequately disseminated.
Some public health observers note that workshops and advocacy alone won’t secure the funding or political will needed to strengthen vaccination policy across Europe. Without concrete commitments from national governments and the European Commission, the risk of underinvestment remains high.
The event is part of the EU project #VaccinAction2025 – Protecting the Value of Vaccination Across Europe. It is tailored and reserved by invitation for leaders of patients’ associations, patient advocacy groups, and civil society organizations from different member states already engaged in Active Citizenship Network’s work on the topic.
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