In December 2025, members of the BRAVE Project team, including representatives from Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) and the African Coordinating Centre (ACC), visited the project’s Rwandan site and facilities, hosted by the Eagle Research Center.
The visit brought together a multidisciplinary group spanning programme management, data quality, and country implementation, reflecting BRAVE project’s collaborative and systems-driven approach to vaccine safety surveillance.
The visiting team included African Coordinating Centre Team (ACC) team members Clare Cutland, Husna Ismail, Jessica Yun, and Kimberley Gutu; Global Coordinating Centre Team Programme and Data Q&A Managers Tapiwa Matsika and Luam Ghebreab; and Rwanda country hosts Alice Nyamwisa, Barbra Mutamba, and Didier Nsazimfura.
During the visit, the teams conducted in-depth reviews at CHUK (University Teaching Hospital of Kigali) and Kibagabaga Hospital. These reviews focused on how health data are collected and managed, both on paper and electronically. They also examined informed consent processes and medical records, working closely with local teams to identify opportunities to strengthen data quality and consistency.
These site visits play an important role in BRAVE’s approach. They allow teams to better understand local health system contexts, support site staff directly, and work together to improve how adverse events are recorded, interpreted and to co-develop solutions with teams on the ground.
This hands-on engagement supports continuous learning and improvement, ensuring that BRAVE data remain robust, comparable, and fit for purpose across diverse health systems.
Through close collaboration with Rwanda partners, the African Coordinating Centre and Global Coordinating Centre Team are contributing to the generation of high-quality background rates of adverse events. These data are essential for strengthening vaccine safety monitoring and building confidence in immunisation programmes across Africa, particularly as new vaccines are introduced and scaled.
The BRAVE Project is supported in whole by funding from CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations).