Deadline: 03-Aug-20
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Projects CTeI of national affairs (Minciencias) have announced a bilateral call between researchers in the UK and Colombia.
This call invites internationally competitive and cross disciplinary research projects, that aim to enhance the evidence base on understanding and addressing the mental health challenges facing post-conflict societies in Colombia.
Themes
The call is structured around four overarching themes:
- Mental health conditions, including; post-traumatic stress disorder and co-morbid conditions such as depression and anxiety.
- Substance misuse and dependence.
- Gender and interpersonal violence.
- Mental health care systems and services.
Funding Information
- Funding will be available to support up to 9 joint research projects, for up to 36 months. UKRI will support a UK contribution of £3m to this call, with an equivalent level of match resource (COP $4.5m) being made by the Colombian funder, Minciencias.
- UK applications can request up to £333,000 (80% fEC).
- The Colombian component of each project may receive up to COP $483,000.
Eligibility Criteria
Proposals must meet the criteria listed below:
- Proposals must have both a UK and a Colombian principal investigator (PI), as well as coinvestigators from both countries, as appropriate to the research proposed and input should be balanced across the two countries.
- Applicants can only be PI on one proposal.
- Colombian PIs cannot be involved in any other grants currently funded by Minciencias.
- Any principal investigators and co-Investigators must be from an organisation eligible for UKRI or Minciencias funding.
- Applicants can be named on more than one proposal as a Co-Investigator, providing they have sufficient time available to work on all relevant proposals if they were all to be successful.
- The UK funding for this initiative comes from the Newton fund. This means that the funding will be awarded in a manner that fits with Official Development Assistance (ODA) requirements. All proposals under this call must therefore be compliant with these guidelines.
Assessment Criteria
Proposals to this call will be assessed in accordance with the following criteria:
- Research importance and quality (50 marks/primary criterion):
- Importance of the research question(s) and/or overall challenge
- Appropriateness and viability of the proposed approach, objectives, and methods, including addressing any ethical issues
- Are the costs included in the proposal ‘appropriate’ (i.e. are they focused on and necessary for building sustainable partnerships) and good value for money?
- Relevance of the activities and methods proposed to the stakeholders and situations targeted in the intervention
- Effectiveness and sustainability of the proposed intervention
- Fit to Call (20 marks):
- An effective and meaningful integration of a range of different disciplines and skills that can be shown to deliver added value
- Expertise assembled is appropriate and sufficient to address the research questions posed
- Relevance of the proposal to addressing the call challenges – how appropriate and developed is the collaboration between the UK and Colombian research in addressing the call challenges?
- Is the distribution of work between the UK and Colombian partners appropriate? I.e. is it a true and fair partnership?
- Engagement and Impact within Colombia (20 marks):
- Effective engagement, co-design / co-production, and knowledge exchange with relevant stakeholders (social actors) and research users including those with lived experience of armed conflict, mental health, local communities, health care practitioners inside and outside of formal healthcare settings, educators, policy makers and governors.
- Evidence that the research will have real-world relevance, and the role of non-academic partners, where included, to facilitate this.
- Meaningful plans for patient and public involvement throughout the award
- Quality of plans for knowledge exchange and mobilization and how these will accelerate implementation of research evidence into socially appropriate policy and practice.
- Potential for economic and societal impact, including how underrepresented groups and those most at risk of mental health problems are likely to benefit.
- Expected outputs and publications (10 marks):
- Potential for delivering new and timely knowledge through quality research outputs and publications.
For more information, visit https://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/aoo-research-call-enhance-understanding-for-mental-health/