Dr Wichmann is a physician trained in infectious diseases and tropical medicine, and specialized in infectious disease epidemiology. In 2002 he received the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and in 2003 completed his Master of Clinical Tropical Medicine in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2007 he completed a two‐year German Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). In 2008–2009 he was employed by the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, Republic of Korea, as a medical epidemiologist and project officer.

Since 2009 Dr Wichmann has served as Director of the Immunization Unit at RKI, an institution within the portfolio of the German Ministry of Health responsible for disease prevention and control. The unit is in charge of the surveillance and control of vaccine-preventable diseases in Germany and conducts epidemiological research. The unit also hosts the executive secretariat of Germany’s national immunization technical advisory group of experts on immunization (NITAG) called the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO). In addition to this function, Dr Wichmann is an associate professor at Charité – Berlin University of Medicine.

Dr Wichmann’s current research interests include the effectiveness and population-level effects of vaccines and evidence-based decision-making for the introduction of new vaccines in national immunization programmes.

Dr Arman Badalyan (MD, PhD) is an epidemiologist and head of the NITAG of Armenia. He is an associate professor at the Department of Epidemiology of the Yerevan State Medical University.

During his 19-year tenure at various organizations (National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003–2006 and 2010–2012; Health Information Analytic Center of the National Institute of Health, 2006–2010), he has successfully implemented many programmatic and administrative projects under the National Immunization Program of Armenia.

In 2010–2018 he was actively involved in the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) in Armenia, providing local epidemiology trainings and logistic support.

DDr Badalyan is a member of the specialized COVID-19 response council under the Armenian Ministry of Health and member of the Ministry’s rapid response committee for possible crisis situations during the implementation of vaccination against COVID-19.

Dr Badalyan’s current research interests include vaccine hesitancy, the HPV vaccine and introduction of new vaccines. In 2022 he headed a working group on introducing the varicella vaccine in Armenia.

Professor Ève Dubé is a medical anthropologist. She is a professor of anthropology at Université Laval in Quebec City and is also affiliated with the Quebec National Institute of Public Health in Canada. Her research focuses on the sociocultural determinants of vaccination. She holds a Canada Research Chair on Applied Public Health and Vaccine Hesitancy.

Professor Dubé is the lead investigator of the Social Sciences and Humanities Network of the Canadian Immunization Research Network. She is interested in ways of enhancing vaccine acceptance and uptake, and is leading different projects on this issue.

Professor Dubé sits on various committees as an expert on vaccine acceptance and hesitancy. She is a voting member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization and an active member of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) and of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential (STAG-IH).

Dr Filia is a public health and preventive medicine physician and researcher working at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Italian National Institute of Health. She received her medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and completed her public health specialty training and earned a PhD in Research Methods in Preventive Medicine and Therapy in Rome, Italy.

Dr Filia’s main areas of expertise are surveillance, epidemiology, and control of communicable diseases and immunizations, with a special interest in vaccine-preventable diseases, measles and rubella elimination, and tuberculosis. She played a major role in drafting the Italian national measles and rubella elimination plan, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, and is an active member of the national strategic advisory group for measles, rubella and congenital rubella elimination. She also worked on the establishment of the integrated measles and rubella surveillance system in Italy, of which she is in charge, and of the national surveillance systems for congenital rubella and rubella in pregnancy. She is a member of the national strategic advisory group for measles, rubella and congenital rubella elimination.

Dr Filia has participated in various European and national projects, expert working groups, risk assessments, and communication activities involving vaccines and control of communicable diseases. Her work in public health has included research on outbreak investigations, evaluation of surveillance systems, attitudes towards vaccinations, and vaccine effectiveness. She has been team lead in studies on vaccine supply and preparedness and on strengthening collaboration between NITAGs. She is actively involved in overseeing and conducting national training courses aimed at health professionals on vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, including vaccine safety, and is an active member of the WHO Vaccine Safety Net.

Dr Lapii is an associate professor at the Department of Paediatrics, Immunology of Infectious and Rare Diseases at the European Medical School of the International European University.

Born in Ukraine, Fedir Lapii graduated from the O.O. Bogomolets National Medical University in 1998 and completed an internship in paediatric infectious diseases in 1999. In 2006 he received a PhD in medicine at the P.L. Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.

Since 2012 Dr Lapii has been a member of the National Technical Expert Group on Immunization in Ukraine, and since 2020 has been the head of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group in Ukraine. He is also a member of the National Verification Committee for the Elimination of Measles and Rubella and the National Certification Committee for the Elimination of Poliomyelitis. Since 2019 he has been the head of the vaccination committee of the Ukrainian Academy of Pediatric Specialties.

Dr Lapii is the co-author of several textbooks on paediatrics, infectious diseases in children, children’s immunology, and immunization guidelines.

He has experience in practical vaccinology, organization and management of vaccination campaigns, implementation of new vaccines, and crisis situation management. Dr Lapii frequently appears in the media as a subject matter expert on infectious diseases and immunization.

Born in Ourense, Spain, Professor Martinón-Torres is currently the Head of Pediatrics and Director of Translational Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago, Spain (USC), Associate Professor of Pediatrics (USC) and Academic of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Galicia.

Professor Martinón-Torres’s main research interests are vaccines and infectious diseases, and particularly host genetic factors and biomarkers, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, pneumococcal disease, influenza, human papillomavirus (HPV), SARS-CoV-2 and bronchiolitis/respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). He has managed or directed as Principal Investigator more than 40 competitive research projects, 130 phase 1–3 vaccine clinical trials, and 25 collaborative grants related to infectious diseases and genomics, including two FP7 (EUCLIDS and PREPARE), four H2020 (PoC-ID, ZIKAction, PERFORM and DIAMONDS) and three IMI2 (RESCEU, c4c and PROMISE) projects. He is a member of ReSViNET, and more than 15 consultative and expert advisory boards on pneumococcal disease (Neumoexpertos en Prevención), meningococcal disease (Esigem/Mendicos), RSV (Academia VRS), heliox therapy, rotavirus, influenza and HPV, and over 20 professional and academic international societies. He currently coordinates the Spanish Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (RECLIP), co-coordinates the Translational Research Network in Pediatric Infectious Diseases (RITIP), and the Genetics, Vaccines, Infectious Diseases and Pediatrics Research Group (GENVIP) of the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), among other clinical networks. He currently coordinates the WHO Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Safety in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Dr Bergsaker (MD, MPH, Diploma in Tropical Medicine) is a specialist in Community Medicine.

Since 2000, she has been working at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), mainly with vaccine-related issues. For many years she was the leader of the Norwegian Childhood Vaccination Programme. Through her work she has been involved in implementation of new vaccines as well as surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccination coverage, monitoring adverse events following vaccination and vaccine hesitancy. Over the years she has given multiple lectures on vaccines at university, college and high school level, at WHO regional meetings as well as for lay people. She has been involved in different clinical trials of vaccines, in some as the Norwegian principal investigator. She is part of the Norwegian NITAG secretariat and chair of the NITAG meetings.

Through her work she has been providing advice to the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Directorate for Health on the national vaccination programme and other vaccination issues. She has also been an advisor regarding vaccinology for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). She was a board member of the Norwegian research council programme for Global Health and Vaccination Research (GLOBVAC) from the start in 2006 until 2010.

Before 2000, she worked as a general practitioner (GP) in Norway and for four years as a GP at UMN Tansen Hospital in Nepal, part of the time as Medical Superintendent.