News

VIVACE, an EU-financed Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Doctoral Training Network, is recruiting 13 PhD students to train the next generation of scientists and improve the management of avian influenza virus in the context of vaccination.

Historically, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) in Europe were rare and geographically contained. However the situation has dramatically changed in recent years, with thousands of outbreaks reported in domestic poultry and wild birds. Vaccination of poultry against avian influenza, which was previously prohibited in the European Union (EU) due to trade restrictions, is now being seriously considered. It is increasingly clear that traditional prevention and control strategies alone are insufficient to stop the escalating pace of HPAIV epidemics. However, vaccinating poultry presents significant challenges.

The project VIVACE, gathering 15 leading universities and research institutes, along with 5 private companies, in an ambitious doctoral network aimed at integrating poultry vaccination strategies into effective HPAIV management.

This interdisciplinary project offers funding for 13 PhD scholarships, spanning various fields from virology and immunology to spatial and molecular epidemiology, computer sciences and social and behavioural sciences. Irrespective of their background, all PhD candidates will benefit from a unique international training in these fields, as well as state-of-the-art soft skills development.

More information about the project can be found here: https://www.inrae.fr/en/news/management-avian-influenza-vaccination-context

Countries for which PhD scholarships are available under the VIVACE project: Belgium, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, The Netherlands, United Kingdom.

See below the list of PhD projects offered by the VIVACE doctoral network. Note that some projects are open to applications and some others will open soon. So stay tuned!

	Location	PhD project title	Supervisor(s) / Co-supervisor(s)	Status
	Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands	Assessing the antigenic evolution and pandemic potential of H5 influenza viruses in the context of vaccination	Mathilde Richard, Mariette Ducatez	Opening soon
	INRAE, Toulouse, France	Identification of escape H9 and H5 mutants due to vaccination	Mariette Ducatez, Siham Fellahi	Opening soon
	University of Siena, Italy	Evaluation of poultry vaccines: translation of immunological assays from human to animal	Claudia M. Trombetta, Silvia Grappi	Opening soon
	National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt	Evaluation of the efficacy of commercial vaccines against avian influenza viruses in field conditions in Egypt	Rabeh El-Shesheny, Christelle Camus, Siham Fellahi	Opening soon
	INRAE, Toulouse, France	Tracking minor variants in avian influenza genome RNA populations to investigate virus evolution under suboptimal vaccination	Romain Volmer, Steven Van Borm, Isabella Monne	Opening soon
	National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt	Tracking the Genomic Evolution of avian influenza in vaccinated and non-vaccinated poultry	Rabeh El-Shesheny, Christelle Camus, Siham Fellahi	Opening soon
	Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco	Rethinking avian influenza virus surveillance in a context of vaccination	Siham Fellahi, Timothée Vergne	Opening soon
	Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands	Risk-based and cost-effective surveillance upon implementation of vaccination in the European (epizootic) context	Arjan Stegeman, Francisca Velkers	Opening soon
	Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium	Ecological niche modelling and phylodynamic assessments of avian influenza risk and dispersal to inform vaccination implementation	Simon Dellicour, Claire Guinat	Open
	INRAE, Toulouse, France	Optimizing poultry vaccination strategies against highly pathogenic avian influenza to support policy	Timothée Vergne, Jose Gonzales	Open
	Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands	Influence of farmer behaviour on the effectiveness of vaccination and biosecurity to control avian influenza	Jaap Sok, Armin Elbers	Opening soon
	Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands	Environmental and welfare impact of vaccination to control avian influenza	Henk Hogeveen, Wilma Steeneveld	Opening soon
	University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United-Kingdom	The economic burden of HPAI and multi-criteria policy-supporting assessment of poultry vaccination	Jonathan Rushton, Henk Hogeveen	Opening soon