Deadline: 31-Dec-20
The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe and TDR, the UNICEF / UNDP / World Bank / WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, are pleased to announce the 2020-2021 call for applications for the Joint Small Grants Scheme for operational / implementation research to identify and address barriers and bottlenecks to implementing tuberculosis-related services during the COVID-19 crisis.
The scope of the call is to cover a spectrum of studies that utilize operational or implementation research methodology, focusing on ensuring continuity of essential TB services (prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care) during the COVID-19 pandemic, to support achieving 2030 milestones and 2035 targets to end TB globally, as set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the WHO End TB Strategy respectively.
Objectives
- Strengthen the TB research capacity of relevant individuals and institutions in target countries and enhance the use of research evidence in policy and decision-making.
- Generate new knowledge, solutions and implementation strategies that can ensure continuity of essential TB services (prevention, detection, treatment and care) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aims
- To support operational or implementation research that:
- Investigates the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on provision of prevention, detection, treatment and care services for TB and drug-resistant TB.
- Evaluates the effectiveness of approaches and measures implemented to ensure continuity of TB services under quarantine and other containment measures for COVID-19 introduced by countries.
- Supports the introduction of effective and efficient innovations in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care of TB and drug-resistant TB to improve health outcomes and promote people-centered approaches to the management of TB and drug-resistant TB.
- To support building adequate and sustainable structures and processes for evidence-informed decision-making in national policies and programmes.
- To foster mechanisms for knowledge sharing and translation to maximize the potential for broader research impact.
Funding Information
- Up to US$ 15 000 per project, including an estimate of open access publication costs.
- Timeframe: Projects should be able to be completed within a period of 12 to 24 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be researchers or health professionals working in public health institutions under the umbrella of ministries of health (such as: national TB programmes, national public health institutes, centers for disease control), universities, research institutions or NGOs, from the following 18 TB high priority countries for ending TB by 2030 in the European region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
- Proposals may be submitted in English or Russian.
For more information, visit https://www.who.int/tdr/grants/en/