This article presents the design of a seven-country study focusing on childhood vaccines, Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe (VAX-TRUST), developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study consists of (a) situation analysis of vaccine hesitancy (examination of individual, socio-demographic and macro-level factors of vaccine hesitancy and analysis of media coverage on vaccines and vaccination and (b) participant observation and in-depth interviews of healthcare professionals and vaccine-hesitant parents. These analyses were used to design interventions aimed at increasing awareness on the complexity of vaccine hesitancy among healthcare professionals involved in discussing childhood vaccines with parents. We present the selection of countries and regions, the conceptual basis of the study, details of the data collection and the process of designing and evaluating the interventions, as well as the potential impact of the study. Laying out our research design serves as an example of how to translate complex public health issues into social scientific study and methods.

Charles University Faculty of Social Sciences the Czech Republic

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Cultural Behavioural and Media Insights Center Finland

Ghent University Department of Sociology Health and Demographic Research Belgium

Global Health and Tropical Medicine GHTM Associate Laboratory in Translation and Innovation Towards Global Health LA REAL Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical IHMT Universidade Nova de Lisboa UNL Portugal

Jagiellonian University Institute of Sociology Poland

Tampere University Faculty of Social Sciences Research Center for Knowledge Science Technology and Innovation Studies Finland

Universidade de Lisboa Instituto de Ciências Sociais Portugal

University of Cassino and Southern Lazio Department of Human Social and Health Sciences Italy

University of Nottingham School of Sociology and Social Policy UK

University of Turin Department of Cultures Politics and Society Italy

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