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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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

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.

100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from May 2025.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

"Excellent variety of sessions, group work sessions were very beneficial, and it was great to apply the learnings through the group presentations. I learnt a lot about different research methods, and the complexity of vaccine policy." - course feedback, May 2025

"The course was ran by enthusiastic leaders who bounced off each other well, and complimented each other. I liked how the practical session ran across several days and you worked towards bringing something together." - course feedback, May 2025

"This course provides a well-balanced coverage of key concepts and research methods in vaccine development. All the course facilitators are engaging and course materials are interesting and easy to understand. The facilitators also dedicate significant time to supporting participants during group work, helping us overcome challenges effectively." - course feedback, May 2025

"Rajeka and Anu were excellent teachers and were great at engaging with everyone and leading interesting discussion. It was great to hear their insight and expertise on the topic. I liked the variation of topics covered and having specific case studies was really good, to see how the theory is applied in real life." - course feedback, May 2025

"Great interactive discussions with course leads. Great to hear perspectives from people working in different areas. Practicals were well organised - good idea to have people stick in the same group to encourage participation and to use slides to support feedback and have a contest to encourage effort. Good use of mix of interactive items - mentimeter, videos, pop in chat, small group work." - course feedback, May 2025