Canadian Immunization Research Network: directed grant extension

The Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) is a collaborative national research network that brings together more than 150 investigators from 58 institutions across Canada. CIRN comprises eight subnetworks built to provide research capacity that is responsive and scalable to undertake research during an infectious disease crisis such as a pandemic and to provide public health with Canadian-relevant vaccine-related research for public health decision-making. As a network of networks, CIRN is undertakes clinical research, surveillance and epidemiological research, and public health program evaluation. The eight subnetworks are the Clinical Trials Network (CTN), Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network (SOS), Canadian National Vaccine Safety Network (CANVAS), Special Immunization Clinics Network (SIC), Provincial Collaborative Network (PCN), Reference Laboratory Network (RLN), Modeling and Economics Research Network (ModERN), and Social Sciences and Humanities Network (SSHN). The extension proposal of CIRN will focus on both non-COVID-19 research activities and COVID-19 research activities. Research areas addressed for the CIRN extension proposal include: (A) rapid evaluation of candidate vaccines for safety and immunogenicity including COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials; this priority will be met through studies undertaken by CTN, SIC and SOS; (B) population-based methods to evaluate vaccine effectiveness and safety; this area will be met by studies undertaken by CANVAS, RLN, and PCN; (C) research on interventions that can help to improve vaccine acceptance, hesitancy and uptake including consideration of priority research projects to inform current and future policy; this area will be addressed by studies undertaken by SSHN; (D) population prioritization, modeling, and knowledge mobilization that support development and roll-out of public health vaccination strategies; these objectives will be addressed through by studies undertaken by ModERN, and (E) coordination and information sharing objectives will be coordinated by the Network Management Office (NMO).