The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global devastation with the deaths of over 3 million people, disrupting economic and social prosperity with a disproportionate impact on underserved and marginalized communities globally. It has also significantly changed our daily lives in all aspects – from the way we live, work, and engage with key public information, including through the use of social media and online platforms. COVID-19 vaccines will play a critical role in returning our societies to some sense of pre-COVID normalcy and ultimately ending this pandemic. As vaccines become increasingly available in all countries, the public health priority will shift from addressing concerns around vaccine access and supply to better understanding the dynamics of vaccine demand, hesitancy, and confidence.
The Alliance for Advancing Health Online is comprised of members from the technology, health, global development, and academic sectors that have joined forces to advance public understanding of how social media can best be utilized to better understand and increase the health and resiliency of communities around the world. The Alliance is excited to launch a request for proposals (RFP) for research supported by the Vaccine Confidence Fund (“the Fund”). Facebook and Merck & Co., Inc. are financially sponsoring the Fund. Other Alliance members will be serving on the Advisory Council.
With more and more communities relying on social media as a significant source of information related to COVID-19 vaccines and the scale of these digital and online platforms, it is vital that we better understand the role these platforms can play and effectively harness their capabilities to increase vaccination confidence and contribute to vaccine decision-making. This Fund is focused on supporting research on ways to more effectively increase vaccination confidence, particularly among historically marginalized or excluded communities globally.
Deadline: Aug. 6, 2021
The Fund is seeking proposals that address this primary research question: How can social media be best utilized to better understand and increase vaccination confidence and uptake?
We highly encourage applicants – especially from interdisciplinary teams and cross-sectoral partnerships – to develop truly transformative proposals that address critical research gaps with creative solutions. We also invite applicants to develop their own ideas that align with the Fund’s primary research question and principles. Research proposals should include the following: a well-defined problem statement that articulates a key research gap and/or specifies a focus population (making it clear why this research is novel and how it will add to the current body of understanding); a proposed research methodology and approach (ideally using interdisciplinary methods); and a measurement framework that outlines clear measures and their intended plans for capturing data. In addition, a dissemination plan, timeline, detailed budget and budget narrative, organizational information, and CVs of key project personnel will also be required.
