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Mixed-Methods Research to inform Public Health Vaccine Policy

Public health policy decisions on vaccination are based on evidence generated through different types of scientific method. In this course you will be introduced to the different methods used, understand how the methods are applied to policy making decisions and how the evidence generated through different methods complement each other. Academics working within the Bristol Vaccine Centre and the University of Bristol (including the tutors on this course) have extensive experience generating evidence to support vaccine and COVID-19 related policies.

Date 6 - 8 May 2025
Fee £0 (pilot course)
Format Online
Audience Internal University of Bristol only, pilot course (prerequisites apply)

In our 2024-2025 programme this course ran as a pilot, open to University of Bristol staff and PGR students only.  We intend that this course will be available to all in our 2025-2026 programme. Find out more about pilot courses.

Image of white lines running across a red background Course profile

This course aims to:

  • demonstrate real-world application of academic and public health research;
  • highlight the multidisciplinary nature of the evidence that is needed to support policy making decisions;
  • provide insight into the different types of methods that are relevant; and
  • demonstrate how the different methods complement each other.

Please click on the sections below for more information. 

Structure

Teaching will be delivered online over 3 full days, between 9.30am and 4.30pm. The sessions will include a mixture of live and pre-recorded lectures delivered by academics at the University of Bristol and guests lecturers working in public health. The course will include interactive, practical group sessions during which students will have the opportunity to practice making policy decisions. There will be opportunities for questions and answers throughout the course.

Intended Learning Objectives

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

  1. appreciate the different types of research methods that are used to support policy making decisions;
  2. understand how the evidence generated through research methods can be used for policy making decisions; and
  3. understand the strengths and limitations of each method and how they complement each other.

Target audience

This course is intended for academics especially early career academics, public health specialists and healthcare professionals with an interest in public policy, specifically vaccine policy. 

Outline

The course will cover:

  1. infectious disease modelling;
  2. health economics;
  3. epidemiology and data science;
  4. randomised controlled clinical trials (including controlled human infection models);
  5. vaccine immunology;
  6. surveillance methods (including vaccine safety, uptake and effectiveness); and
  7. intervention co-production.

Teaching staff

This course is taught by academics, clinicians and public health specialists mainly working within Bristol Medical School who are experts in the methods used to support public policy.

Prerequisites

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Eligibility

 This course is available to University of Bristol staff and postgraduate researchers only. Candidates must be able to fully attend the course and provide feedback.

Conditions

Pilot courses are extremely popular and all live sessions must be attended in full. You should only book onto this course if you are able to commit to attending in full and have time to provide detailed feedback.

Attendance is monitored. Failure to attend in full, without a valid reason, will result in your access to pilot course materials being rescinded and you will not be permitted to attend any further pilot courses within the same academic year.

Bookings

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

We do not charge fees for pilot courses, nor do they count against your allocation of free course places. However, in return we ask that you take the time to provide full and thorough feedback so we can effectively evaluate the success of the course.

Pilot courses are extremely popular and all live sessions must be attended in full. You should only book onto this course if you are able to commit to attending in full and have time to provide detailed feedback. Attendance is monitored. Failure to attend in full, without a valid reason, will result in your access to pilot course materials being rescinded and you will not be permitted to attend any further pilot courses within the same academic year.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full How to pay your short course fees..

For help and support with booking a course refer to our contact us, here or feel free to booking information page directly. For available payment options please see: FAQs

Bookings close two weeks before the start of each course. Once all courses have finished for the current academic year we close the booking system for updates, and re-open again in the Autumn. To be notified about our timescales for opening annual registrations and bookings sign up to our mailing list.
 

Course materials

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

Please note that this is a pilot course and therefore no Materials & Recordings (UoB only) option is available.

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