Deadline: 1-Aug-25
The National Medical Research Council is seeking applications for its Population Health Research: New Investigator Grant Program.
To allow space for researchers to identify emerging areas of need and discover novel ideas that may contribute significantly to health outcomes in the medium- to long-term, the PHRG-NIG welcomes applications on all research topics as long as the scope is within the research areas designated for the overall PHRG (i.e. Health Promotion and Preventive Health, and Health Services Research).
However, they would also like to share information on the following research themes that have been prioritised by MOH. If your proposed research is aligned with one or more of these themes, it would be helpful to articulate this in your proposal write-up.
Thematic Areas of Research
- Mental Health: This theme will fund research catering to the spectrum of patients with mental health conditions, from children and adolescents in schools, to working adults, to elderly patients. Particular attention will be given to research that improves access to mental healthcare in the community and supports the integration of primary and specialist mental healthcare.
- Care for Mothers and Children: This theme spans the continuum of care from pre-conception, pregnancy and childbirth to infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and research should address metabolic health, mental health and cognitive development of children and their mothers.
- Population Mobilisation and Improved Access in the War on Diabetes and Other Common Chronic Diseases: To address these issues, proposals for research submitted under this theme can cover new models of care, strategies, and research pertaining to patient behaviour and education, as well as to create change and societal shifts in enabling access to healthcare for patients with diabetes or other common chronic diseases.
- Effective Use of Technology to Improve Health: This theme will fund research that seeks to identify and create innovative models of care in the areas of telehealth and telemedicine, including for health promotion and preventive health, systems integration and databases, and privacy protection and data security.
- Prevention and Preparedness for Healthy Ageing: This theme seeks to fund research into ideas that can extend healthy and functional lifespan and reduce the impact of disability, with a view for translation or application of solutions that can have a positive impact on their seniors.
- Care for Complex Patients: This theme will also support research targeted towards allied health and multi-disciplinary team-based care pertaining to the delivery of integrated care, including both medical and non-medical professionals. Strategies that have a community-based focus will be prioritised.
- Sustainable and Efficient Care Delivery: This theme addresses the need to improve the sustainability and efficiency of our healthcare delivery system through improving resourcing and allocation, and approaches such as Value-Based Care. This theme will support research that seeks to optimize resource allocation, improve healthcare manpower productivity, and increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery without compromising quality.
- Palliative Care: As the population ages, palliative care will become increasingly important as they seek to enable patients to live out their final days in a dignified manner. Over the years, Singapore has been enhancing the quality, affordability and accessibility of palliative care services.
- Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM): This theme will fund research that seeks to understand the prevalence, attitudes and health seeking behaviour of their population with regard to T&CM, with a focus on how Western medicine and T&CM can be used safely together.
- Health Systems Research: Besides improving various care models serving different groups of patients, research at a health systems-level could potentially yield important insights into system-level interventions or policies that may impact health on a wider or deeper scale.
- Rehabilitation (Rehab): Rehabilitation is the principal core intervention for disability. MOH has launched the National One-Rehab Framework aimed at enhancing patient outcomes for six major rehab conditions. PH Research is a key component to evaluate the characteristics, systems, outcomes and trajectories to develop precision-guided PH.
Funding Information
- The PHRG-NIG will provide a funding quantum of up to S$130,000 per project (inclusive of up to 30% indirect costs) for 2 years. Projects involving prospective patient/subject recruitment may apply for a funding duration of up to 3 years, subject to the same funding quantum.
Eligibility Criteria
- Each PHRG-NIG application must be led by a Principal Investigator (PI) who has to fulfill the eligibility criteria listed below:
- PI must have a PhD and/or MBBS/BDS/PharmD/MD and/or other appropriate Postgraduate Qualification (at least a Masters Degree) in areas relevant to the proposed research.
- For proposals involving patients, the clinical PI or co-I should be SMC registered; or should be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC registered collaborators. For some PHRG-NIG proposals it is recognised that some studies may be pre-clinical and not require the PI to be SMC registered.
- Only one PI is allowed per application. The number of applications by an individual (as PI) is capped at 1 grant application per grant type in a grant call.
Evaluation Criteria
- Selection of successful proposals would be based on the following evaluation criteria:
- High quality scientific research
- Proposed research topic should be population health research of importance to the health system in Singapore. Provided they are scientifically meritorious, proposals which address the set themes would be given priority consideration.
- Demonstrate the potential to further the investigators career to become a full-fledged independent PI.
For more information, visit NMRC.