The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and the Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Republic of Korea (ROK), have exchanged a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that aims to facilitate KDCA’s core contribution to IVI on behalf of the Government of Korea and expand bilateral cooperation.

With the new MOU, KDCA renewed its commitment to provide annual core funding contribution to IVI on behalf of ROK. KDCA and IVI agreed to cooperate in operation and research activities to help IVI achieve its goal of protecting people in developing countries from infectious diseases through development and delivery of vaccines and application of technologies for global health.

KDCA also agreed to actively support joint research projects and training programmes between IVI and Korean industry, academia, and research institutes, part of joint efforts to accelerate the globalization of Korean vaccines and help Korea increase contributions to global health. 

At the ceremony, the two sides also exchanged a separate letter of intent on cooperation in the “EPIC (Epidemiology, Public Health, Impact) Fellowship programme.” Funded by KDCA, the programme will promote expertise of Korean professionals by training and engaging them with field operations in epidemiology and public health in Africa and Asia coordinated by IVI by leveraging IVI’s experience, capabilities and global network.

Image caption- Dr Eun-kyung Jeong, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and Dr Jerome Kim, Director General of the International Vaccine Institute