CCOUC team participated in the World Health Organization Vaccines Research Forum on 2 March 2021. The aims of the forum were to provide rapid updates of COVID-19 vaccine research progress against WHO R&D Blueprint roadmap priorities and to encourage and facilitate the rapid dissemination and open discussion of research protocols and emerging results.

The forum covers the current status of WHO framework for response to new COVID variants, updates from the assays, animal models and human challenge model groups, solidarity vaccine trial, randomised and non-randomised studies to assess effects of vaccines, regulatory alignment to evaluate modified or new vaccines for variants of concern, current research plans of vaccine developers and updates from partners including CEPI/COVAX, GLOPID-R, and NIH–US.