In a series of firsts, the International Travelling Exhibition ‘Vaccines Injecting Hope’ will tour five venues across India in Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, starting from November 15, 2022, till September 2025 and is projected to reach more than 2 million people.  

The National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and the Science Museum Group, London, joined hands to tell the story of the global effort to develop vaccines. The exhibition was inaugurated on November 15, 2022, by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Culture & Parliamentary Affairs, at the National Science Centre, Delhi. The exhibition has been made possible with support from many research and scientific organizations in India. 

The event has sections such as ‘The Arrival of New Virus’, ‘Designing a New Vaccine’, ‘Trials, Results and Approvals’, ‘Scaling Up and Mass Production’, ‘Vaccine Rollout’, ‘Living with COVID.’ The motive is to tell the story of a global effort through innovative ways. An artwork ‘Through the Lens,’ commissioned by British Council and created through collaboration between an Indian sculptor based in Delhi and a playwright in London, seeks to explore an individual’s relationship with vaccination, historically as well as with the COVID-19 pandemic at the backdrop.  

Dr Rajiv Bahl, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said that this exhibition is extremely important. Just knowing science is not enough. Science has to reach the people and for science to reach the people, the mix of art and science is a beautiful way to reach out to people.