Elżbieta Czapka, PhD, from the UG Centre for Sustainable Development, together with a team of researchers from the Pandemic Centre situated in Alrek Health Cluster, Bergen: Professor Esperanza Diaz – Director of the Centre, Marta-Johanna Svendsen and Andrea Magugliani, received funding of £195,400.00 for a project entitled “Increasing migrants’ access to vaccine information in the Tri-city area”.
The winning project includes research activities that, due to the need for a rapid response, are not possible by applying for other existing funding mechanisms.
The project addresses an important social, civilisational problem with both global and regionally relevant implications. It addresses access to vaccination knowledge among refugees, disparities in vaccination calendars, the low enforceability of mandatory vaccination and the growing activity of anti-vaccination movements. Knowing, asking questions and collectively addressing concerns about vaccination has the potential to influence a sense of collective responsibility regarding public health in Poland, which can benefit immigrants and the Polish population.
As part of the project, education and engagement activities will be carried out in the foreign partnership, consisting of three stages:
- diagnosis – including discussion of the social challenges of the pandemic, preparation of diagnostic and didactic-consultation materials,
- intervention and inclusion – including monitoring the invitation of other migrants, organising and carrying out interventions,
- evaluation in the Tri-city area, including conducting structured in-depth interviews and analysing the results, preparing recommendations.
The project will take 12 months to complete and will end on 03.07.2024.
The aim of NAWA’s Intervention Grants programme is to support international cooperation between research teams or international mobility of researchers undertaken in response to sudden, important, unforeseen social, civilisational and natural phenomena with global or regionally significant consequences. The implementation of projects under the programme enables researchers to collect data, gain new knowledge, investigate the effects and significance of an extreme phenomenon or event as soon as possible after its occurrence. Participation in the programme enables scientists to undertake intervention research in international collaboration and develop solutions relevant to responding to disruptive events.