Deadline: 16-Feb-23

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is inviting applications for its Applied Global Health Research to support research that will address global health challenges and inequities.

MRC are looking to develop a portfolio of high quality global research, which will be diverse, promote multidisciplinarity and strengthen global health research capacity.

They also welcome cross-sector research combining expertise to meet a global health challenge. For example, a single proposal may include aspects of urban planning, health policy and non-communicable disease research. The research question might involve different disciplines and approaches from outside the health sector, but the primary objective must be health focused.

Examples of areas in which applied research may be conducted include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Maternal and neonatal health
• Early childhood development
• Adolescent health
• Healthy ageing
• Sexual and reproductive health
• Infectious diseases, including neglected tropical diseases and COVID-19
• Non-communicable diseases, including mental health disorders
• multimorbidity
• Nutrition and food security
• Snakebite
• Intentional and unintentional injury
• Urban health, including indoor and outdoor air pollution, road traffic accidents and healthy housing
• Planetary health
• Informal settlements, conflict zones and displaced populations
• Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention
• Detection and diagnostics
• Mobile health (mHealth)
• Treatment, including surgery
• Pain management and palliative care.

The MRC FCDO concordat supports global health research projects funded through the Applied Global Health Research Board in specific strategic areas of mutual interest, for example:

• Infections
• Maternal and newborn health
• Implementation science
• Adolescent health
• Early child development.

Areas they will not fund

• Maternal and neonatal health
• Early childhood development
• Adolescent health
• Implementation science

What they are looking for?

• They are looking for research projects that will develop practical solutions to global health challenges and inequities. The aim is to fund a portfolio of high-quality global research,which will be diverse, promote multidisciplinarity and strengthen global health research capacity.
• This includes:
  • Late-stage intervention development and testing, which can include global health trials
  • Implementation and scale-up research
  • Health systems, health policy and health economics research.

Eligibility Criteria

• They encourage applications from principal investigators based in:
  • low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
  • UK, working in partnership with LMIC investigators.
• You can apply for this opportunity if you are a researcher based at an eligible research organisation. These include:
  • Universities or higher education institutions based in the UK or low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with degree-awarding powers recognised by the government in which the organisation is based
  • Research focused institutes based in LMICs either funded by the government of the country in which the organisation is based or by a not-for-profit organization research focused not-for-profit organisations based in LMICs with dedicated  research capacity
  • UKRI-approved independent research organisations or NHS bodies
  • Public sector research establishments
  • MRC institutes
  • MRC units and partnership institutes (including those in Gambia and Uganda)
  • Institutes and units funded by other research councils.
  • You must have a graduate degree, although they expect most applicants to have a PhD.
• MRC particularly encourages applications from:
  • Overseas researchers based in LMICs
  • Researchers who are eligible to apply for MRC funding and working in equitable partnership with LMIC researchers.

Ineligible

• Researchers not eligible to apply
• If you are a researcher based in China or India, you are no longer eligible to be a principal investigator. However, you are welcome to apply as a co-investigator, with an eligible research organisation as the lead.
• It is expected that researchers from China, India and any high-income countries (HICs) make a significant contribution to their own research costs, including covering their own overheads.

For more information, visit https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/applied-global-health-research/