coOPERATOR: Developing a Country-Observatory for sharing best practices for vaccination promotion

European stakeholders face significant variability in addressing vaccination hesitancy and implementing COVID-19 vaccination campaigns among healthcare providers and the general population. Challenges include widespread hesitancy within the population and variations in the communication skills of healthcare providers. To address these issues, cross-country initiatives play a crucial role in knowledge-sharing, especially considering the observed differences in vaccine coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The co-OPERATOR project seeks to capitalize on research findings by developing and piloting a knowledge hub, virtual observatory, and training system across participating countries and beyond. This proof-of-concept initiative aims to gather, structure, and disseminate knowledge, best practices, and resources related to stakeholders' strategies for COVID-19 vaccination and beyond. The primary focus lies in advancing communication and knowledge skills while addressing systemic barriers and facilitators for effectively promoting vaccination messages to the population.

Role of Maastricht University

Maastricht University will lead work Package 6: Translate research evidence to policy recommendations. Within this package we will work on identifying the policy landscape including potential obstacles and challenges for the implementation and transfer of good practices . Furthermore policy Lab will be organised in Brussels aiming to bridge the gap between research and policy. At the end of the project a report on the acceptability, feasibility and usability of identified solutions will be written.

Consortium

The consortium engaged in this project conducted research that uncovered:

• differing success levels in conveying vaccination messages to the population, underscoring the need to enhance stakeholders' capabilities in vaccination promotion, and
• the intricate nature of vaccination hesitancy, necessitating collaboration across diverse entities, ranging from healthcare professionals to local governments.