RFP- Alliance for Advancing Health Online’s Vaccine Confidence Fund

About the Organization:

The Alliance 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 are financially sponsoring the Fund.  Other Alliance members will be serving on the Advisory Council. 

RFP- Alliance for Advancing Health Online’s Vaccine Confidence Fund:

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.

Selection Criteria:

• Importance: Does the proposal contain a coherent and compelling problem statement?
• Alignment: Do the proposal’s research question(s) and research methods align with the Fund’s primary research question?
• Equity: Does the proposal aim to support focus communities, or address underlying drivers of disparities, especially in trying to achieve health equity?
• Experience: Does the proposed research team have a proven track record of expertise in the proposed fields of study?
• Feasibility: Are the proposed research methods technically and methodologically feasible given time and cost constraints (see more details below)? Do the proposed research methods adequately and appropriately consider privacy – specifically do the methods design for user consent?
• Novelty: Is the proposed line of inquiry novel and does it have the potential to fill an important knowledge gap?
• Engagement: Does the proposed research incorporate engagement with the focus community before, during, and after the research?
• Urgency: Does the approach reflect the immediate circumstances of the targeted community? Are there any risks that those circumstances may change in the immediate future?
• Collaborative partnerships: Does the proposed research team reflect interdisciplinary areas of expertise? Does the proposed research team pursue partnerships across sectors/disciplines to generate bold and innovative solutions?
• Applicability: Can the anticipated research results be used to shape and inform practical public health and technology interventions in the short-term? How can the results of this research be applied in communities beyond those studied?
• Impact: Does this proposal articulate clear measures and their pathway to immediate or potential impact (i.e., vaccine uptake)? If impact data is not available (due to the project timeline), are there interim results that can be tracked?
• Budget: Does the proposal include a budget and clear justification for key budget items?

Submission of Proposals:

Key application requirements include:

• Project Title, Summary and Background/Rationale that articulate a key research gap and/or specifies a target population (making it clear why this research is novel and how it will add to the current body of understanding)
• Research Objectives and Methodology (ideally using interdisciplinary approaches) with timeline
• Measurement framework that outlines clear measures and intended plans for capturing data
• Dissemination plan
• Key project team members’ CVs/resumes
• Budget and budget narrative

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