Funding Opportunity for Vaccine Safety Research

At NVPO, we offer opportunities to partner with us on vaccine safety research designed to help strengthen the U.S. vaccine safety system. These opportunities are available through a cooperative agreement with NVPO.

NVPO and Vaccine Safety Research

Cooperative Agreement Program

NVPO seeks partners to collaborate on vaccine safety research projects related to adult vaccination. Focused on innovative and programmatic research, our unique funding opportunities are designed to be collaborative. Researchers work closely with NVPO and subject matter experts from across the federal government.

NVPO’s cooperative agreement program (Safety Research of Currently Recommended Immunizations in the United States and Other Vaccine Prototypes (NV-VSR-17-001)) is one of several federally-funded opportunities for vaccine safety research, including PA-15-312/PA-15-313, under the title “Research to Advance Vaccine Safety (R01/R21)” funded by NIH and CDC. The NVPO cooperative agreement program is intended to offer support for exploratory and programmatic vaccine safety research, as articulated above, that can be completed within 1 year.

Research Goals

We aim to conduct research in vaccine safety that:

Determines the safety profile of new vaccines during the early development stage
Advances and innovates vaccine safety research
Impacts the current vaccine safety monitoring system
Expands our understanding on the field of adversomics

Our Role in Partner Research

NVPO plays a very active role in research partnerships — and it is this collaboration with our awardees that produces such high-quality results. For example, the NVPO Vaccine Safety team:

Communicates regularly with the principal investigator (PI) and study team
Provides guidance and support for the project’s design, development, and implementation
Connects the study team to relevant vaccine safety stakeholders
Oversees decisions related to potential adverse events following the immunization research, monitoring, and result analysis
Helps the study team prepare publications and presentations of study results

Projects and Awardees

2017 Projects and Awardees

NVPO awarded 3 cooperative agreements to partner on research that supports and innovates around vaccine safety in the United States. The selected research projects focus on the priority areas of maternal immunizations and precision medicine. The 2017 awardees are listed below.

Awardee: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
Principal Investigator: Nicola Klein, MD, PhD
Project Award: $338,425
Description: This project focuses on adversomics. It aims to identify inherited, immunologic, and clinical factors that may predict the occurrence of febrile seizures after measles vaccination.
Awardee: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Principal Investigator: Steven Black, MD
Project Award: $250,000
Description: This project focuses on maternal immunization safety. It aims to validate the Global Alignment of Immunization Safety Assessment in pregnancy (GAIA) maternal and neonatal outcome definitions to standardize the evaluation of the safety of vaccines.
Awardee: The Rockefeller University
Principal Investigator: Jean-Laurent Casanova, MD, PhD
Project Award: $161,575
Description: This project focuses on precision medicine. It aims to analyze the genetic determinants of the immune response following yellow fever vaccination among individuals who experience serious adverse events.

2015 Projects and Awardees

The 2015 cooperative agreements focused on vaccine safety research and the prevention of adverse events after vaccine administration. Eligible submissions focused on researching, establishing, or testing the vaccine safety profiles. The 2015 awardees are listed below.

Awardee: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals—Kaiser Foundation Research Institute
Principal Investigator: Roger Baxter, MD and Co-Principal Investigator Nicola Klein, MD, PhD
Project Award: $250,000
Description: NVPO funded the creation of a maternal-neonatal vaccine safety database and analysis of outcomes using the database. The first analysis compares the likelihood of fever in babies born to vaccinated versus unvaccinated mothers after receiving their first pertussis vaccination. The second analysis compares alternative benefits of influenza vaccination during pregnancy.
Published Research: Kaiser Permanente Northern California Pregnancy Database: Description and proof of concept study and No association between influenza vaccination during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

Awardee: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals—Kaiser Foundation Research Institute
Principal Investigator: Allison Naleway, PhD
Project Award: $250,000
Description: NVPO funded research to examine the prevention of injection site pain and fainting associated with pre-teen and teen vaccination. In addition, the research funded the development of a prevention kit currently being tested in Kaiser clinics.
Published Research: Feasability of a pilot intervention to reduce pain and syncope during adolescent vaccination