Deadline: 31 August 2020
The WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) and TDR are pleased to announce the 2020-2021 call for applications for the Joint TDR/WPRO Small Grants Scheme for implementation research in infectious diseases of poverty.
The Small Grants Scheme is a joint initiative of TDR and WPR which began in 2006. TDR is a global programme of scientific collaboration that helps facilitate, support and influence efforts to combat diseases of poverty. TDR is hosted at the World Health Organization (WHO), and is sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and WHO. It supports implementation research on infectious diseases of poverty that leads to health improvement, strengthened research capacity of individuals and institutions in developing countries, and implementation strategies and solutions that respond to health needs in these countries. It also supports translating research results into policy and improved health practices, and promotes the engagement of individuals and communities in using research evidence to reduce the disease burden in their respective countries.
Objectives
- Strengthen the research capacity of individuals and institutions in conducting implementation research; and
- Facilitate and strengthen implementation research in countries for the control and elimination of infectious diseases of poverty, including research that addresses issues related to the culture and environment that contribute to these problems.
Priority Research Areas
The number and scope of infectious diseases of poverty is large and wide. The focus of this call will be on malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that represent a significant burden, disproportionately affect the more vulnerable populations in the Region, and whose elimination and control is considered feasible using available tools and innovative approaches for health services and intervention delivery, and thus targeted by WHO as one of its priorities in the Region.
Malaria and NTD programmes in the WHO Western Pacific Region have identified the priority research topics for this call as follows, though selection is not limited to this:
- Malaria
- Development of intervention packages for malaria elimination targeting populations living in remote and/or difficult to access areas, including mitigation of risks to service delivery staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Innovative interventions to expand access to malaria diagnosis and treatment in remote areas.
- Evaluation of malaria elimination interventions and strategies such as 1-3-7, foci mapping and maintaining prevention of reintroduction.
- Assessment of malaria diagnostic and treatment services provided by village malaria workers, volunteers or community health workers.
- Assessment of primaquine use in countries, its compliance to national policy and patient compliance with regimens.
- Evaluation of different field applications/tools for malaria diagnosis and screening in different epidemiological situations, including point-of-care testing for G6PD deficiency.
- Assessment on malaria surveillance data quality and use for impact at all levels of the system, including quality and use of information from routine systems and surveys.
- Neglected Tropical Diseases
- Determination of optimal modalities in the “new normal” to implement community-based interventions and health services in the COVID-19 pandemic situation (e.g. mass drug administration, mass dog vaccination campaigns, community clean-up, use of mobile technologies).
- Determination of various options to effectively employ a whole-of-society approach to improve coverage of community-based interventions (mass drug administration, veterinary public health, surveillance, vector control, morbidity and disability care).
- Evaluation of safety, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of integrated interventions for multiple diseases of poverty (e.g. mass drug administration for yaws, lymphatic filariasis and scabies, mass drug administration integrated with bednet distribution, community-based surveillance for dog and snake bites, integrated rehabilitation of LF-associated morbidity and other disabilities).
- Evaluation of the impact of WASH interventions and community engagement on the burden of NTDs.
- Determination of practical approaches to regularly assess the burden of soil-transmitted helminthiases in the resource-limited Pacific island countries.
- Evaluation of the feasibility, performance and cost of the combined use of alternative diagnostics (e.g. ELISA, POC-CCA, CAA) to help develop an advanced surveillance strategy for verification of elimination of Asian schistosomiasis.
- Determination of various feasible and cost-effective options to sustain post-elimination surveillance of lymphatic filariasis.
- Development of innovative technologies to monitor dengue vector densities such as GPS.
- Assessment of factors contributing to dengue mortality and strategies to overcome these factors.
- Identification and assessment of gaps in treatment protocols and applications practiced by health care providers for dengue case management.
Funding Information
- Financial support: up to US$ 15 000 per project
- Duration of research proposed: No longer than 12 months
Eligibility Criteria
- Principal investigators must be based in institutions in low- and middle-income countries of the of the WHO Western Pacific Region (i.e. Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Viet Nam), including the ministry of health, academic and research institutions, and national research institutions.
- Research must be conducted in low- and middle-income countries of the WHO Western Pacific Region.
- The research project proposed in the application must relate to the objective and scope described in the present call.
- Developed in collaboration with the malaria and NTD programmes of the ministry of health; staff of the national control programme should be part of the research team.
Applications from young and female researchers are strongly encouraged.
For more information, visit https://www.who.int/tdr/grants/calls/SGS-WPR-2020-21/en/