Global Research Agenda on Malaria Vaccine Introduction and Implementation Outlines Priorities to Guide Rollout
April 23, 2025 | News Feed | Reading time: 3 min
A comprehensive global Malaria Research Agenda has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) with technical input and support from the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) and PATH, to support the introduction and use of malaria vaccines. The research agenda build upon findings from the pilot implementation of the malaria vaccine in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi. The pilot rollout showed that the RTS,S malaria vaccine can be safely delivered through routine immunization systems and can significantly reduce severe malaria and hospital admissions among children.
KHRC and PATH led broad stakeholder consultations with malaria and immunization experts to identify key knowledge gaps. These discussions helped shape the research agenda by focusing on the design, implementation, and optimization of the rollout and scale-up of the malaria vaccine.
KHRC’s involvement in malaria vaccine research dates back to its implementation of phase two and three clinical trials to test the effectiveness of the RTS,S vaccine. The success of these trials contributed to the vaccine being added to routine immunization systems in Ghana and other malaria-endemic countries. The Centre’s researchers, Prof. Kwaku Poku Asante, Dr. Samuel Afari-Asiedu, and Dr. Thomas Gyan, played key roles in developing the malaria vaccine implementation research agenda, ensuring that Ghana’s experiences and perspectives were captured.
The research agenda covers implementation and operational research (OR and IR) questions related to the deployment of malaria vaccines organized according to six broad themes that focused on (1) how safe the malaria vaccine is, (2) how feasible it is to deliver the vaccine, (3) how people feel about receiving the vaccine, (4) how the malaria vaccine can be combined with other health services or malaria interventions, (5) how effective or impactful the malaria vaccine is, and (6) whether it is affordable and cost-effective for countries to use.
The goal of this research agenda is to provide a shared guide that can help countries make informed decisions as they introduce and scale-up malaria vaccine programmes. In total, 28 priority research topics across the six thematic areas were identified to guide countries in introducing and scaling-up malaria vaccines effectively and reaching more children.
Given that the introduction of malaria vaccines is estimated to save an additional half a million lives over the next 12 years, periodic review of this research agenda will be useful to ensure its continued relevance and to capture emerging research priorities.
Find link to the full Technical Report https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/380229 and Research Brief https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/380228