COVID-19 response actors navigating multi-dimensional crises in Flanders, Belgium

Funding Information: TK, LWH, TN, SD, KPG, AV, TGV, NV, CV, CG and CVR declare receiving a grant by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO-Research Foundation – Flanders), to conduct social listening of vaccine concerns in Belgium. LWH, NV, TGV, KPG, CG, CVR, SD, and TN declare receiving funds by the Vaccine Confidence Fund to conduct a study on healthcare workers vaccine sentiments and to foster vaccine dialogue in Belgium. HJL reports receiving a grant by MacArthur Foundation to address inequalities in Covid-19 recovery, by J&J to listening to public concerns around Covid-19, from Unicef to carry out social media listening of vaccine concerns in Central and Eastern Europe, and by Merck for research on vaccine hesitancy among health care providers in 15 countries. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted societies globally. Public health institutions were tasked with responding to the pandemic in a dynamic and uncertain context. This paper sheds light on the experiences of COVID-19 response actors as they navigated multi-dimensional crises associated with the pandemic in general and vaccine hesitancy in particular. This research was conducted during the initial phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Flanders, Belgium. Participants included informants across all levels of the COVID-19 vaccination strategy including but not limited to those producing scientific knowledge, providing policy input, or implementing public health directives locally. ‘Crisis’ was identified as a recurring theme in interviews with informants. The paper highlights multi-dimensional crises experienced by informants such as the: (i) crisis of prioritization, (ii) crisis of communication, (iii) crisis of the changing image of science, (iv) crisis of epistemic agency and autonomy, and (v) crisis of trust.publishersversionpublishe

Research and development project assessment and social impact

Nowadays, organisations increasingly need to adapt to the fast evolution of markets and societies in our globalised world in order to be competitive. Therefore, it is essential to take the right decisions when it comes to invest in research and development (R & D) projects. However, an issue that has not been given much attention is how to measure the social impact (or return) of R & D projects. In this exploratory study, the findings of an analysis of how R & D projects are assessed and selected, including this social perspective, are presented. The methodology which has been used in this research includes both interviews and analysis of the data obtained through them. The major finding is that in the current situation the social impact is not taken into account, but is growing the awareness of this perspective among different types of organizations dealing with R & D activities.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Embracing context: Lessons from designing a dialogue-based intervention to address vaccine hesitancy.

Dialogue with people who are vaccine hesitant has been recommended as a method to increase vaccination uptake. The process of cultivating dialogue is shaped by the context in which it occurs, yet the development of interventions addressing vaccine hesitancy with dialogue often overlooks the role of context and favors relatively fixed solutions. This reflexive paper shares three key lessons related to context for dialogue-based interventions. These lessons emerged during a participatory research project to develop a pilot intervention to create open dialogue among healthcare workers in Belgium about COVID-19 vaccination concerns. Through a mixed methods study consisting of in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys, we engaged healthcare workers in the design, testing, and evaluation of a digital platform featuring text-based and video-based (face-to-face) interactions. The lessons are: (1) what dialogue means, entails, and requires can vary for a population and context, (2) inherent tension exists between helping participants voice (and overcome) their concerns and exposing them to others' ideas that may exacerbate those concerns, and (3) interactional exchanges (e.g., with peers or experts) that matter to participants may shape the dialogue in terms of its content and form. We suggest that having a discovery-orientation-meaning to work not only inductively and iteratively but also reflexively-is a necessary part of the development of dialogue-based interventions. Our case also sheds light on the influences between: dialogue topic/content, socio-political landscape, population, intervention aim, dialogue form, ethics, researcher position, and types of interactional exchanges

Doubt at the core: Unspoken vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers.

Funding Information: CG, KP, SD, TK, TN, CVR, LWH report a grant from Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO- Research Foundation – Flanders), to conduct social listening of vaccine concerns in Belgium.publishersversionpublishe