Deadline: 26-Oct-22

The 2022 Joint WHO African Region/TDR Impact Grants are now open to fund implementation research on infectious diseases of poverty that lead to health improvement of the population as well as strengthened research capacity of individuals and institutions in low- and middle-income countries.

This call is a joint initiative between TDR, the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), who have a mutual interest in strengthening the capacity for health research in developing countries. The call reflects a commitment to increasing the level of implementation research to deliver high quality and cost-efficient health care solutions to people in resource poor settings.

The goal of the TDR Strategy 2018–2023 is to foster research on infectious diseases of poverty that lead to health improvement, strengthen research capacity of individuals and institutions in developing countries and develop implementation strategies and solutions that respond to the health needs of these countries. It also supports translation of research results into policy and practice by improving health and promoting the engagement of individuals and communities in using research evidence to reduce the disease burden in their respective countries.

The grants also encourage cooperation between the research teams and national and international partners.

Objectives

The objectives of impact grants are to:

• Strengthen the research capacity of relevant individuals and institutions in countries.
• Generate new knowledge, solutions and implementation strategies that can be applied by countries for the control and elimination of infectious diseases.
• Encourage intersectoral dialogue and one health approach.

Research Priorities

The aim of this call is to facilitate and strengthen public health-oriented implementation research. Implementation research activities supported by this call may be complementary to those supported through other stakeholders interested in these research areas.

The focus of this call is on the following priorities, with illustrative research areas below. Note that this is not an exclusive list of submission possibilities:

• Health systems strengthening through implementation research
  • Implementation research comprises the study of methods to promote the adoption and integration of evidence-based practices, interventions and policies into routine health care and public health settings.
• Addressing complex public health issues through implementation research
  • The Region’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health or communicable disease co-morbidity, and many countries find it challenging to progressively cover additional people with nationally determined sets of integrated health services through a primary health care approach.
• Implementation research for One Health and emerging diseases
  • Research is needed to understand the lifestyle factors underlining the vulnerability to airborne, waterborne and vector-borne diseases as well as interplay between these disease outbreaks and climate or environmental changes in the African Region. Vector-borne disease control, as in the case of sustainable health and environmental risk mitigation in general, is suggested to be most effective when research and interventions are framed from a ‘coupled human-natural systems’ perspective.

Funding Information

• Funds: Up to US$ 15 000 per grant. Co-funding from domestic or other sources is encouraged.
• Study duration: One year (12 months)

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be researchers or health professionals working and based in African institutions, including national tropical/communicable disease control programmes, ministries of health, academic institutions, research institutes and nongovernmental organizations.
• Applications are particularly encouraged from qualified applicants who are in the earlier career stage, are women, or are from the group of least-developed countries.
• Research proposed must be conducted in the African Region.
• The Principal Investigator (PI) must be based in an institution in an African country or territory, including national tropical/communicable disease control programmes, ministries of health, academic institutions, research institutes and nongovernmental organizations.
• The research project must relate to the objective and scope described in the present call.
• If implementation is sought to be in a health centre, an authorization letter from the public health manager or director is needed.
• Proposals submitted should include an acknowledgement letter signed by the manager of the programme area or the person in charge of the programme related to the project at any level of the public health/ healthcare services (e.g. primary health care unit, municipal secretary of health, state department of health, or national ministry or secretary of health). The acknowledgement letter does not mean there is a need for clearance for the project, as no technical assessment is needed at this level.
• Applicants must demonstrate experience in operational and/or implementation research. This might include, but is not limited to, evidence of having been trained in operational /implementation research and being able to conduct research independently. Such training could include the TDR Implementation Research Toolkit, the MOOC (massive open online course) on implementation research, or another formal research training experience.
• TDR is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in science. Researchers are encouraged to apply irrespective of gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious, cultural and social backgrounds, or (dis)ability status.

For more information, visit https://who.force.com/etdr/s/gs-solicitation/a0p3X00000gLNkaQAG/ca220016