At the 18th European Public Health Conference (EPHC 2025) in Helsinki, RIVER-EU will host a 1-hour scientific workshop and roundtable discussion on Wednesday, 12 November 2025. The session will showcase how participatory, context-specific interventions can remove health system barriers to vaccination and promote equity for underserved communities.
Event overview
Title: Implementation of tailored interventions for vaccine uptake: Engaging underserved communities
Date: 15:15-16:15, Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Event type: Scientific workshop and roundtable
Why attend?
This interactive workshop is a unique opportunity for public health professionals, policymakers, and researchers to:
- Explore how interventions co-created with communities can reduce vaccine inequalities,
- Learn from hands-on experiences in four European countries,
- Discuss how these approaches can be transferred and scaled in different contexts.
Attendees will benefit from a series of expert presentations followed by a dynamic roundtable discussion and Q&A.
About the workshop
RIVER-EU has worked with five underserved communities across Europe to identify and remove barriers to HPV and MMR vaccination. Using a participatory approach and the PIET-T transferability model, the project assessed six evidence-based interventions through 25 workshops and 39 interviews/focus groups with communities and stakeholders. These interventions were then tailored to local contexts and implemented in close partnership with community members.
The workshop will present the outcomes of these implementations and highlight key opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned.
Case studies to be presented:
- Slovakia: Roma health mediators supporting HPV vaccination in marginalised Roma communities. Read more on our work in Slovakia.
- Poland: Educational interventions to increase HPV vaccination acceptance among Ukrainian migrants and refugees. Read more on our work in Poland.
- The Netherlands: Community-based educational sessions on HPV vaccination for Turkish and Moroccan-background females. Read more on our work in the Netherlands.
- Greece: HPV and MMR vaccine education intervention to promote migrant health equity. Read more on our work in Greece.
The session will begin with an introduction to RIVER-EU’s participatory process and transferability approach, followed by short country presentations and a roundtable discussion with the audience. Together, we will reflect on practical strategies to reduce vaccination inequalities and explore how lessons from RIVER-EU can inform future RIVER-EU Guideline and Action Framework.
Join us
Join us in Helsinki on November 12th to discover how tailored vaccination interventions have made a difference in underserved communities.
- The detailed agenda of our workshop can be found here.
- Registration is only available through the EPHC website. For more information and to secure your spot please visit www.ephconference.eu/register-107 .