The goals of the Master Course were:
- Capacity building in vaccinology and vaccine development;
- To prepare students for a career in academia, public health and research and development in public and private vaccine institutes.
The Concept was to:
- Provide graduates in medicine with a Master degree in vaccinology via a tailor-made training in immunization, public health and vaccine development. The program is extensive and complete, covering subjects from epidemiology, health economics, disease burden of vaccine preventable infectious diseases, vaccine development from research to licensure and vaccine policy and funding;
- Create a collaborative effort between academia, not-for-profit sector and vaccine industry;
- Offer an 18-months program, combining theoretical and practical training. Faculty members are worldwide experts from academia, well known universities, supranational organizations and industry. In the last edition managed by Fondazione Sclavo they were:
- WHO, PATH, EMA, BMGF, GAVI, PEI, IVI, CDC, ECDC, EU Commission, DCVMN, ADITEC, Achille Sclavo Foundation; Sabin Institute, Bio-Manguinhos / Fiocruz, DoH UK and Italy, FAMHP Belgium, Welcome Trust, CHERMID, MRC Gambia, Brighton Collaboration;
- Johns Hopkins Institute, Baltimore, US; Institute Pasteur, Paris, France; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Imperial College, London, UK; Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland; Carlos Chagas Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and other prominent universities and academic institutions from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Finland, Italy, Mali, Spain, South Africa, UK, US;
- GSK, Novartis, Takeda Vaccines, Sanofi-Pasteur, Pfizer, Roche, GRID Europe & Asia, FIDEC, VisMederi; G-Con, BLF councils, 4Clinics.
The program included:
- 11 months of face-to-face classes organized on 10 modules,
- Extra Curriculum: parallel educational seminars for personal and professional development.
- A 7-month internship with students spending 1 month at the University of Siena within its different departments at the university hospital and 6 months within different departments of the sponsors and collaborative institutions, followed by investigational site training,
- A written thesis submitted to the University of Siena Medical School evaluated by a panel of experts during the public thesis defense at the end of the 18 months program.