NISEC was originally formed in 2017 following a successful application in response to a ‘Research call on vaccine evaluation to inform policy and decision making for the national immunisation programme’ from the Department of Health Policy Research Programme. NISEC II was formed in 2023 following another application in response to a ‘Research call on vaccine evaluation to inform policy and decision making for the national immunisation programme’ from the Department of Health Policy Research Programme. NISEC II is coordinated by the Oxford Vaccine Group (Professor Maheshi Ramasamy), and individual projects within the NISEC II programme can be led by any of the NISEC member institutions. These studies are delivered through a network of NIHR supported recruiting sites including, but not limited to, the NISEC II research sites. Research priorities are determined by the NISEC Advisory Board, with input from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the research committee of the JCVI, the UK Health Security Agency and the NISEC site Investigators. Implementation of NISEC studies is guided by the NISEC steering Committee.

Collaborative working across the academic sites and the UK Health Security Agency has resulted in streamlining of study design and conduct, including standardisation of study protocol templates, study databases and Standard Operating Procedures. Statistical support for all sites is provided by the statisticians at the Oxford Vaccine Group as needed, and study sample analysis is preferentially conducted at the laboratories of the UK Health Security Agency to optimise comparisons across past and present studies.

Examples of the NISEC and NISEC II studies, their results and impact on UK immunisation policy can be found on the nisec.ac.uk website.

NISEC II is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Policy Research Programme.

NISEC was commissioned by the Department of Health & Social Care.