Abstract

The sixth Global Vaccine and Immunization Research Forum (GVIRF), convened in Brazil in March 2025, brought together researchers from around the world to discuss progress and challenges across vaccine discovery, development, and delivery.

Over the last 50 years, vaccine and immunization research has made tremendous contributions to global health, with 40% of the reduction in child mortality attributed to vaccination. Looking ahead, improved understanding of the immune system and new vaccine development approaches hold untapped promise, including for vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and difficult-to-target pathogens.
However, this research is facing unprecedented headwinds in an increasingly challenging economic and geopolitical climate. Sharp reductions in funding have curtailed research programs, particularly for diseases that predominantly impact lower income countries. To sustain progress, GVIRF participants called for:

• Increased domestic financing and political commitment, including from middle- and low-income countries, to invest in vaccine research and development (R&D). To mobilize these commitments, we must demonstrate the societal benefits of vaccines, advocate effectively, and build trust across all stakeholders, particularly in affected communities.
• Adapting and integrating the R&D ecosystem at the global, regional and national levels. This requires sustainable financing solutions and incentives, for example through risksharing partnerships that align incentives with manufacturers and by collaborating with development financing institutions on innovative financing vehicles and co-investments.
• Working efficiently to accomplish more with less. Each organization must deliver on its remit, demonstrate good stewardship, and function in an efficient, coordinated ecosystem. Ways to improve efficiency include aligning priorities for R&D across end-users and funders; innovative, harmonized regulatory mechanisms for faster and more costeffective approvals; and predictable, evidence-driven policy decision making.

At GVIRF 2025, participants voiced their commitment to maintaining vaccines and immunization programs as the bedrock of primary health systems while adapting to this new reality.

GVIRF-2025

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