The 11th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research, hosted by the National Foundation for Infectious Disease, attracted approximately 450 leaders in the fields of epidemiology, health economics, immunology and vaccinology, making it the largest scientific meeting devoted exclusively to vaccine research and technology. The conference highlighted recent advancements in vaccine design, including the discovery of new adjuvants, cytokines and regulatory pathways. Other topics included a comprehensive overview of the development and uses of cutaneous vaccination and a discussion of recently licensed vaccines against the human papillomavirus, herpes zoster virus, meningococcal disease and rotavirus and a discussion on the importance of redesigning and increasing the coverage of the influenza vaccine. Keynote remarks were provided by the demographer and economist David E Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health, USA), who argued that traditional economic evaluations of vaccine interventions have failed to account for the full range of benefits that can accrue from vaccination. These benefits are substantial in size and potentially decisive with respect to the bottom-line results of benefit-cost calculations.