A world free from meningitis.
That’s our vision. It’s what shapes and informs everything we do.
Our role in that? To support and connect people and research to drive action and save lives.
Our Meningitis Research Foundation strategy, 2025 – 2030 sets out the priorities that will allow us to make meaningful progress toward that vision. This strategy will be a success if we’ve achieved (or exceeded) our headline ambitions for each priority.
This strategy is for you – the people and families who have been directly affected by meningitis.
We’ve developed it by listening to what you need, and have been guided by scientists, funders and policymakers to focus on the areas where we can make the biggest difference.
It’s about how we’ll continue to connect people, evidence and action for change, so that meningitis can be defeated, wherever in the world it exists.
Our priorities
1. Research for better evidence
Our ambition is to:
- Invest up to £1 million in research into the use of, and access to, meningitis vaccines and into understanding and reducing the life-long impacts of meningitis.
- Launch a new integrated research and engagement programme into the life-long impacts of meningitis.
- Complete our £1 million, Wellcome-funded research programme into the use of meningitis pathogen genomics for public health.
- Deliver three international research conferences and two research spotlight sessions.
- Continue to support the Global Meningitis Genome Partnership.
2. Understand for better policy
Our ambition is to:
- Launch new insights and policy papers on the equitable use of, and access to, meningitis vaccines and on improved quality of life for all those affected by the consequences of meningitis.
- Estimate the true burden of meningitis from all causes, and include this in the Meningitis Progress Tracker for the first time.
- Support civil society to use the data in the Meningitis Progress Tracker, so advocacy is evidence-led and enables better policy development.
- Improve protection and care in the UK by advocating for the introduction of a MenB protective vaccine for teenagers and the development of a national plan on meningitis.
3. Act for better lives
Our ambition is to:
- Increase awareness of meningitis, including maintaining World Meningitis Day as the world’s largest day of collective action on meningitis (with people in over 80% of countries taking action).
- Grow and strengthen our member network, the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations, to over 300 members in more than 60 countries.
- Ensure the voices and needs of people affected by meningitis remain at the heart of our work, reaching over 2,000 ‘Meningitis in your words’ testimonies, hosting five CoMO conferences on the lived experience of meningitis and using this collective, global voice to drive action through our Race to 2030 advocacy programme.
- Develop an evidence-led, meningitis health communication strategy, which is used and adopted in all regions of the world.
Investing in our foundations
Our foundations underpin every area of our work. From our medical and scientific advisor groups to our Support Services, fundraising activity and Ambassador programme, these remain critical to what we do now and what we want to achieve in the years ahead.
That’s why, between 2025 and 2030, we will:
- Continue to listen, learn and support people who have been directly affected by meningitis.
- Deliver change by having high quality, sustainable and diverse team, capabilities and resources.
- Ensure equity is embedded in everything we do.
Picking up the pace of progress
“We will pick up the pace of progress needed to defeat meningitis by 2030 and equip ourselves so we are ready for the next decade.”
Vinny Smith, Chief Executive, Meningitis Research Foundation and the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations
You can read more on our priorities, including what we will achieve, in our strategy for 2025 – 2030. They reflect where we’ve come from, our headline ambitions for where we want to get to and why our work matters.
Thank you for supporting us on this journey so far; for doing so as we work towards each of our strategic priorities; and for continuing to support us as we work towards defeating meningitis by 2030.
More
Meningitis Research Foundation strategy, 2025 – 2030
Meningitis Research Foundation strategy, 2025 – 2030 (one page summary)