The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in South Korea, the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine in the US have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote and further academic research collaborations.

The collaboration is envisioned to include: (1) exchange of scientists between institutions; (2) collaborative research in vaccine development; (3) the sharing of scholarly and scientific materials, and (4) steps toward establishing an international collaborating office of IVI in a formal academic relationship with the Section of Pediatric Tropical Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor.

Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of IVI, said: “Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine have been at the forefront of advancing and advocating for a global, equitable, and collective effort for COVID-19 vaccine development and access. This collaboration will give significant momentum to IVI’s work on vaccines for global health, and we look forward to accelerating vaccine research in poverty-associated infectious diseases with the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.”