IBRO’s Neuroscience Capacity Accelerator for Mental Health

Deadline: 24-Oct-23

Are you interested in participating in a unique and impactful career opportunity to establish a research collaboration with a focus on mental health? The International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) invites you to apply for the IBRO-Wellcome Neuroscience Capacity Accelerator for Mental Health, an innovative program which aims to elevate the capacity for impactful neuroscience research programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

IBRO is collaborating with Wellcome to advance neuroscience research initiatives and address urgent mental health challenges worldwide. Under this broad mission, this call aims to award projects that will advance knowledge generation in neuroscience with relevance to furthering the understanding of and/or finding new ways of predicting, stratifying, and intervening as early as possible in anxiety, depression, psychosis, broadly defined.

The program at a glance:

• Aims:
  • enhance capacity for leading neuroscience research collaborations at a formative stage in LMICs
  • fund projects that either
  • further the understanding of anxiety, depression, or psychosis, or
  • find new opportunities for early interventions in those conditions
  • support the collaborators in their preparation of subsequent successful project proposals
• Example activities could be aimed at:
  • widening networks beyond the usual circles, including with partners from different areas and with complementing expertise
  • exchanging and developing projects and ideas
  • developing plans to collaborate with LE experts
  • generating pilot data, etc.

What is the program about?

• The Capacity Accelerator is not just about funding-it is also an opportunity for you to develop your research expertise and capacity for engaging in successful collaborations. Projects may be aimed at widening networks beyond the usual circles-including with partners from different scientific areas with complementing expertise, developing plans to collaborate with Lived Experience (LE) experts, generating pilot data-all with the goal of preparing successful future project proposals.
• As a capacity-building program, the Capacity Accelerator will also offer a tailor-made professional development program for awardees, including a variety of activities, ranging from in-person exchanges to virtual workshops and webinars over a 6-9 month period.

Why should you apply?

• Whether you are from an academic institution, a research institute, a not-for-profit organization, or a non-academic healthcare organization, the Capacity Accelerator will support your ability to prepare successful grant proposals in the future. Receive up to £50,000 in funding, and more importantly, gain the skills and network to advance your personal and professional growth. The grant will support you as you establish the basis for long-lasting, fruitful collaborations.
• Note: They take anxiety, depression, and psychosis as broadly defined categorizations to include all types of anxiety and depressive disorders (including obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder) and all forms of psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia, postpartum psychosis, and bipolar disorder).

Eligible Projects

• Project Proposals should:
  • be for a duration of 6-9 months
  • show a potential for long-term scientific collaboration, highlighting plans for the development of research proposals, when relevant
  • address ethical implications in both study design and uptake (if applicable)

Eligibility Criteria

• Researchers or clinicians with pre-existing collaborations or those seeking new opportunities to expand their research or research trajectory with a small group of partners, i.e. typically 2-3 collaborating partners in total.
• The lead applicant must
  • either be based in or affiliated with an institution in a LMIC and have the experience necessary to drive and lead a collaborative research project, or the necessary support structures in placee to enable this.
  • hold independent investigator status.
• It is not required that the co-applicant(s) be based in or affiliated with a LMIC or hold independent investigator status.
• The co-applicant(s) must provide complementary skills and resources essential to the delivery of the project.
• Collaborations can be international, or collaborators may be based in the same country
• Applicants can be employed by higher education institutions, research institutes, non-academic healthcare organisations, or not-for-profit organisations.

For more information, visit IBRO.