National immunisation technical advisory groups (NITAGs) are committees of experts providing independent advice on vaccines and vaccination to national governments. Many of the 178 NITAGs around the world are supported in their functions by a NITAG secretariat structure.
The Global NITAG Secretariat Survey 2025 (NSS2025) was a project undertaken jointly by the World Health Organization-coordinated Global NITAG Network (GNN) and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), Australia. It sought to document the structure, functions and perceived needs of NITAG secretariats globally at one specific point in time.
An anonymous online survey of NITAG secretariats was carried out in January-February 2025, with some early results presented at the March 2025 meeting of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE). This report contains the full findings from NSS2025. These findings are organised in this report under the seven headings of structure and staffing, administrative duties, technical duties, funding, policymaking support, relationships and training needs. The report concludes with a Regional Supplement, where findings are organised according to WHO region.
A summary of the main characteristics of the NSS2025 secretariats is provided in Table 1, followed by a summary of the recommendations. The main findings from NSS2025 are as follows:
• Approximately half the NITAG secretariats participating in NSS2025 had a workforce of less than one full-time equivalent staff, and 82% had staff with capacity to undertake technical duties.
•The size of the secretariat was related to the tasks it undertook. The smallest administrative and technical secretariats undertook a more limited variety of duties. Larger secretariats were more likely to be involved in NITAG work planning and to use recommendation frameworks, among other activities.
•Secretariats funded exclusively through domestic government sources tended to be larger, in existence for longer and more likely to report adequate funding. Most NITAG secretariats had unmet funding needs, especially in relation to the core task of NITAG meeting organisation.
•NITAG secretariats expressed interest in and need for ongoing training and development, but additional financial support was often needed to pursue this.
•The NITAG secretariats of upper middle-income countries (UMICs) faced unique challenges in terms of human resources and the technical complexity of vaccine policy questions.
•NITAGs and their secretariats were connected to a range of national and international stakeholders and supports. Many sub-regional relationships were built upon existing geopolitical, cultural and/or economic ties between countries (such as the network of Nordic NITAGs).
•It was not possible, from the data gathered in NSS2025, to determine conclusively whether the presence or absence of a secretariat played a role in the capacity of a NITAG to make policy recommendations.
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