UPDATE: WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST. ALL OUTPUTS OF THIS WORK WILL BE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE IN DUE COURSE.
WHO is soliciting proposals for experts to inform the definition of specifications and standards related to interoperability, governance, and design for a personal digital vaccination certificate, in preparation for COVID-19 vaccine availability. Please follow instructions, detailed below, to nominate experts, by 17:00 CET on December 14, 2020.
For WHO to remain software neutral, the Smart Vaccination Certificate approach will focus on establishing key specifications, standards, trust framework for a digital vaccination certificate to facilitate implementation of effective and interoperable digital solutions that support COVID-19 vaccine delivery and monitoring, with intended applicability to other vaccines. With WHO, a number of agencies including UNICEF, GAVI, ITU, and EC DG SANTE are contributing to this initiative to establish a multi-sectoral consortium focused on joint-learning and supporting use of the finalized specifications and standards for digital vaccination certificates, architected for linkage to national and cross-border digital systems.
Background
WHO and partners have embarked on a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, supplemented by health systems connector in support of the “Access to COVID-19 Tools” or ACT-Accelerator. Not only the development, but the delivery, of a vaccine is an essential part of the ACT-Accelerator. The initial limited supply and unprecedented demand will pose significant challenges that will require innovation and appropriate use of technology built on replicable systems and robust interoperability standards adapted to the legal and health context, as well as to the level of technology maturity of its member states.
Furthermore, as detailed in the International Health Regulations (2005), WHO has the mandate to coordinate among member states to provide a public health response to the international spread of diseases. Currently, yellow fever is the only disease expressly listed in the International Health Regulations for which countries can require proof of vaccination from travellers as a condition of entry into a country. WHO has a mandate to take a coordinating role to ensure that member states are equipped and ready for the anticipated global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. For effective implementation of COVID-19 vaccines, global coordination of relevant data management principles and processes is needed to account for and facilitate coherent implementation of transmission prevention and control by all member states.
The Smart Vaccination Certificate consortium will bring together experts to focus on defining specifications and standards for a digital vaccination certificate that would serve current and future requirements, toward the dual purpose of (1) facilitating monitoring of national COVID-19 vaccination programs as well as (2) supporting cross-border uses architected for a potential future in which the COVID-19 vaccine would be included in an updated version of the International Health Regulations.
The consortium’s goals are to:
- Achieve consensus on common standards and governance for security, authentication, privacy, and data exchange;
- Strategically align efforts and collaboration to manage lessons learned and commonalities;
- Establish guidance for member states to facilitate informed adoption; and
- Foster shared and trusted global vaccine certificate architecture with digital solutions that support the COVID-19 vaccine use case and establish foundational services for other health services.
The objectives of the consortium will be to:
- Publish recommended standards for security, authentication, privacy, and data exchange for outlined use cases;
- Demonstrate and learn from successes and challenges (via demos, proofs of concept, and implementations);
- Identify and curate multiple tools that conform to security, authentication, privacy, and data exchange standards identified and recommended by the consortium.
- Develop appropriate guidance detailing use cases, standards, and best practices; and
- Provide guidance to member states to ensure they can adopt and support digitized vaccination certificate solution.
The anticipated outputs of the consortium include:
- A governance framework and common architecture for the issuance and verification of vaccination certificates;
- Established interoperability standards with a common taxonomy and specifications for certification; and
- A vetted suite of digital solutions identified that adhere to the defined specifications, interoperability standards and architecture.
The shared principles include:
- Everyone has the right to obtain and hold a smart vaccination certificate;
- The smart vaccination certificate should not be increasing health inequities or increasing the digital divide;
- Every smart vaccination certificate should be recognized and verifiable by any trusted authorities;
- Minimum data collected and appropriately shared – only data required for the purposes of vaccinations should be required;
- There is no “one size fits all” or “one solution to rule them all”. Given how diverse our world is, this effort focuses on ensuring that each smart vaccination certificate solution is able to meet the public health needs of each WHO member state as well as the needs of individuals around the world.
- Supporting local and sustainable development. The consortium is intended to reach consensus on a minimum set of requirements that would allow each smart vaccination certificate solution to meet the needs in their country while still being usable in others. This, we believe, will enable member states to have a fair choice of solution without excluding products from any institution.
Practical Considerations
The WHO is planning on incrementally releasing specifications related to the Smart Vaccination Certificate. Experts who are invited to participate will be expected to contribute their expertise to different aspects of the formulation of specifications through virtual meetings and working groups. The first of these meetings is expected to take place in early January, with subsequent working group meetings taking place fortnightly to advance each subsequent version of the specifications. Experts are requested to focus on standards and specifications, agnostic to any specific technology or software.
Request for nomination of experts
The panel of experts will be made up of a diversity of practitioners with a balance of geographic, technical and standards expertise, and implementation experience represented, with the following prioritized:
- Expertise on interoperability standards, including standards for
- Establishing trust architecture, frameworks and models
- Semantic content, data models and terminologies (e.g. ICD, LOINC, SNOMED) for health
- Data exchange standards for health (e.g. HL7 FHIR)
- Protocols for obtaining verifiable credentials (e.g. W3C verifiable credentials)
- Protocols for requesting and presenting verified credentials
- Protocols for issuing, signing, verifying, and revocation of credentials
- Expertise on security, privacy, authentication, identification, and interface standards;
- An outstanding record of achievement and personal credibility within own field, appropriate to the remit of the group and experience in developing standards (e.g. immunization information systems, interoperability standards; data, privacy, security, and authentication standards, digital and health information systems architecture and governance).
- Experience of work and issues in multicultural and international settings;
- Experience of operating at a strategic level in the public or other sectors;
- Experience of working effectively in high level advisory or technical committees (e.g. ISO TC 215);
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to support effective discussion with a range of stakeholders;
- Ability to evaluate complex issues and weigh up conflicting opinions;
- Ability to influence at a senior level;
- Good command of English; and
- Capacity to support this accelerating work immediately.
How to apply
For health informatics, digital standards, and innovation experts
To apply, experts must confirm interest, availability and commitment to participate and provide:
- Up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV);
- A letter of motivation highlighting what your potential contribution to the roster/technical advisory group;
- A presentation, sent in PDF format, outlining a proposed global interoperability standard for issuing, certifying, and verifying a vaccination event (10 or less slides);
- Completed Declaration of Interests (DoI) form for WHO Experts
- Guidance on completion of the declaration of interest form can be found as Annex A
- The WHO Code of Conduct for WHO Experts can be found as Annex B
- Completed Annex C: Confidentiality Undertaking form
The CV should include your career history and list your main areas of employment or other relevant activity and other public appointments. You should also include details of any relevant academic, professional or vocational qualifications. Your CV will be used in the assessment of your expertise. It is important that the CV and/or letter of motivation provide evidence that you have the qualifications outlined above. The CV should be written in English and should include all contact details including, if available, a cellular phone number.
Please send your completed applications to the WHO Smart Vaccination Certificate Secretariat’s email address smartvaccination@who.int with the subject line "Application for Smart Vaccination Certificate Consortium – [name of country where you work] and [full name of the applicant]” for email receipt before 17:00 CET on the 14th of December 2020.
For any questions, please email: smartvaccination@who.int
Processing of Expert Applications
The Secretariat will acknowledge receipt of your application and its completeness (by e-mail reply) and will check it for eligibility within 3 days of reception, starting from 3 December 2020 onwards.
The Secretariat will rely on the information provided to assess your expertise, skills and potential for your participation in the consortium. Please ensure that you provide written evidence to support how you meet all of the relevant criteria detailed above under the “request for nomination of experts”. Interviews may be scheduled to clarify areas of uncertainties for any application.
Candidates who best fit the criteria and match the required qualifications with due consideration to ensuring equitable representation will be reviewed and evaluated by the WHO Smart Vaccination Certificate Secretariat.
Each individual’s application has been reviewed by multiple WHO staff as part of the Smart Vaccination Certificate Secretariat and determined that (1) they have no conflicts of interest and (2) that their individual expertise is appropriate for this working group – independent of their affiliation. The selection of experts will also take into account inter alia geographical representation and gender balance in forming the working group.
Successful candidates will receive a letter inviting them to serve as part of the consortium that will specify the start date and duration of term.
All applications will receive notification from the Secretariat informing them of the final status of their nomination to the consortium, whether successful or unsuccessful.
Compensation
Participation in this consortium is not remunerated. However, compensation would be provided for expenses related with attendance to in-person meetings where travel may be required. Such compensation, which includes the issuance of airline tickets, per diem to cover lodging, food and incidental expenses will be in accordance with the WHO travel rules. Please note that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, meetings will only be conducted virtually, and the Secretariat will try to accommodate all time zones. Participation in virtual meetings is not compensated.