Alongside the clinical trials, a wide range of social science research studies are being carried out to analyse vaccine and trial acceptability and outbreak preparedness in Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These multifaceted studies are exploring people’s understandings and experiences of Ebola and vaccines, perspectives on the trial, as well as rumours and concerns.

Traditional social science methods, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, discussions and ethnography, are being employed to ensure the studies are thorough and wide-ranging and that lessons can be learned for future outbreaks of Ebola and other new infectious diseases.

The findings of these studies are fed back to trial investigators as quickly as possible, so that communications and trial processes can be adapted to support acceptance of the trial and retention by participants and communities.

The studies detailed in this section are associated with the EBOVAC3 project, and are connected to a larger body of social science and community mobilisation work being carried out with adult and adolescent Ebola vaccine trial participants and communities as part of the EBOVAC1, PREVAC and PREVAC-UP projects.

Find out more about the EBOVAC Social Science projects in Sierra Leone, Guinea and the DRC.