WHO’s EMRO announces Special Grant for Research in Public Health 2020–2021 including COVID-19

Deadlines:

• EMRPPH: 1 June 2020
• Covid-19 Research Proposals: 15 May 2020

WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean has announced the eleventh call for research proposals for Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office Special Grant for Research in Priority Areas of Public Health (EMRPPH) 2020–2021.

The research proposal guidelines have been developed to support health research initiatives in the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), with a focus to promote health research as a tool for national development programming, and to increase the use of evidence based action and health planning for provision of equitable health care.

The aim of the grant is to promote health research as a tool for national development programming, and to increase the use of evidence-based action and health planning for provision of equitable health care.

This round of calls, includes a special call for COVID-19 research in response to the related pandemic and the importance of the issue for all countries of the region.

Objectives

General objective

To promote EMR-based research in the strategic areas of WHO/EMRO’s work

Specific objectives:

• Generate local knowledge relevant to the strategic areas;
• Assist capacity building for research through learning by doing and hands on training;
• Strengthen the link between evidence generation and health policy making; and
• Enhance experience-exchange between the Region’s member states
• Only health-related research proposals meeting the following criteria are eligible for support:
• The research proposal must be related to the priority areas specified by this call for proposals; and
• The research proposal must not duplicate a proposal to another national or international agency for simultaneous consideration.

Funding Information

The EMRPPH award amount will range from $ 10,000 – 15,000 for each proposal, and the proposed duration for which support is requested must not exceed 10 months.

Priorities Areas of EMRPPH Grants

The priority areas for this call for proposals are summarized below:

• Communicable disease prevention and control
  • Relationship of vaccine hesitancy with routine or supplementary immunization coverage.
  • Digitalization and immunization data quality (comparative regional studies).
  • Factors affecting inequality in immunization in countries of low immunization coverage in the Region.
• Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health
  • Barriers and potential solutions for implementing multisectoral actions on NCD prevention and control.
  • Status of childhood cancer burden and management capacity.
  • Assessing knowledge, prevalence and use of novel tobacco products.
• Healthier populations
  • Implementing multisectoral interventions for addressing NCD risk factors in the context of the Healthy Cities Programme.
  • Systematic review of innovative approaches for promoting community engagement in public health interventions.
  • Accessibility barriers of adolescents to reproductive health services.
• Environmental health and food safety
  • Health outcomes most affected by climate change.
  • Sources of air pollution (source apportionment studies).
  • Readiness of hospitals to deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear, events.
• Health systems development
  • Models of care for assuring integrated people-centred health services in the Region in moving towards universal health coverage (UHC).
  • Migration patterns of health workers in the Region.
  • Patterns of use and access to medicines between different socioeconomic groups including insured versus uninsured population groups in the Region.
• Science, information and dissemination 
  • Cost-effective measures to improve quality of data from national health information systems or its sub-information systems.
  • Assessing and improving quality of cause of deaths notifications/reports, issued by Forensic Medicine Department/oroners (compliant with International Classification (ICD) certification rules).
  • Essential requirements of health facility data that ensure production of valid and reliable information.
• Health emergencies
  • Comparing services against needs provided to populations affected by emergencies.
  • Assessing the quality of health services provided to populations using standardized tools in emergency settings.
  • Effectiveness and acceptance of oral cholera vaccines in the Region.

The priority areas for COVID-19 proposals include:

• Epidemiology and surveillance
  • Epidemiology (incidence, mortality rates, etc.) of COVID-19 associated with NCDs, mental health and neurological and substance use and NCD risk factors in countries of the Region.
  • Identification and handling high-risk groups in populations of the Region.
  • Role of wild-life, domestic and companion animals in transmission of COVID-19 to humans.
  • Can COVID-19 be transmitted in indoor non health care settings environments?
  • Physical distancing measures: impact on flattening the COVID-19 epi curve.
  • Risk factors for severity of COVID-19 infection, including co-morbidity, medications, tobacco use, source of infection (case-control study).
  • Linkages between tobacco use, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and COVID-19 in the Region.
  • Impact of COVID-19 on people living with malnutrition in low-income countries.
  • Geospatial modelling to forecast the geographic distribution of COVID-19 with countries of the Region.
  • Implementing multisectoral interventions for addressing COVID-19 risk factors in the context of the Healthy Cities Programme.
  • Use of machine learning in monitoring and evaluating the response to COVID-19.
  • Assessment and mitigation of ethical challenges in research in a pandemic situation.
• Community engagement, infection prevention and control
  • Role of risk communication and community engagement in responding to COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures in reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health care in the context of COVID-19.
  • How efficient is the disinfection of streets and open spaces?
• Health systems and services
  • Comparing essential/basic health services (both quantity and quality) during the COVID-19 pandemic against needs provided to populations in fragile, conflict-affected and violent settings.
  • Acceptability and effectiveness of remote delivery of mental health and neurological and substance use disorders services.
  • Health system strengthening for better response and improved preparedness in the context of COVID-19.
  • Models of care and services (re)organization to ensure continuity of services (e.g. maternal and child, NCDs, immunizations, etc.) during emergencies, including outbreaks and pandemics.
  • Expanding UHC, ensuring no one is left behind, e.g. refugees, IDPs, migrants and other vulnerable groups, including during emergencies and outbreaks.
  • Use of cause of death and/or routine health information system data for identification and validation of COVID-19 cases and outbreak control.
  • Decision-making processes at national level and use of evidence in a pandemic situation.
  • Effectiveness and feasibility of using digital health solutions in response to COVID-19 needs.
• Disaster preparedness and response
  • Transmission risks and patterns of COVID-19 in quarantine centres in countries of the Region.
  • Effectiveness of contact tracing models in countries of the Region.
  • Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on countries with protracted emergencies.
  • Assessment of effectiveness of EWARN system in detecting and responding to COVID-19.
  • Performance of point of entry surveillance systems in detecting COVID-19.
  • Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices study on acceptance and adherence to non-pharmaceutical public health interventions for COVID-19 containment, prevention and control.
  • Monitoring response for the COVID-19 pandemic in the Region.
  • Molecular and serological investigation of COVID-19 infected patients to detect multiple shedding routes.
  • Detection of IgG and neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19 among recovered cases of COVID-19 (longitudinal cohort studies).
  • Detection of asymptomatic carrier state of COVID-19 through national screening programmes.
  • Assessment of COVID-19 infection prevention and control practices and measures among health care workers.
  • Physicians’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding clinical management of COVID-19 cases.
  • Prediction models for assessment of health care capacity to manage COVID-19 cases in the Region.
  • IHR (2005) implementation and COVID-19: how linked they are.
  • Enhancing country preparedness: lessons learned from the COVID-19.
  • Assessing the COVID-19 disaster management/response practices, experiences and capturing lessons earned.
  • Challenges in response to outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics in areas affected by conflicts with more than one governing authority.
  • Social media and its role in early warning, alert and response.

When preparing your research proposals, please consider the health needs of marginalized and underserved populations and risks, and disaggregation of collected data by sex, age and socioeconomic quintiles in your analysis plan.

Eligibility Criteria

• Health related scientists, researchers and scholars based in EMR countries are encouraged to submit proposals. While postgraduate students are not encouraged to submit research proposals on their own, they could support teams of investigators, accordingly. The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a national of a member state of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and the research site should be in one of its Member States.
• Individuals and Institutions
  • Individuals and institutions engaged in EMR health research are considered eligible for submitting proposals which include:
    • Ministries, academic institutions, research institutes in EMR countries.
    • Non-governmental organizations: professional societies and civil service organizations involved in EMR health research activities.

Selection Criteria

A Selection Committee formulated by WHO/EMRO will carry out the final selection review. The selection procedures usually consider the following:

• Merit of the proposal addressing a research area specified in this call for proposals with a clear national / regional perspective
• Observing gender, equity and human rights
• Applying quantitative / qualitative methodologies, as appropriate
• Observing ethical standards in research involving human subjects
• Outlining clear results’ dissemination plan
• Multi-disciplinarily team composition
• Expertise / track record of the team of investigators
• Expected impact of the research outcomes on national and/or regional health profile
• The proposals will be recommended for funding during the final meeting of the WHO/EMRO Selection Committee, the decision of which is considered final.

For more information, visit http://www.emro.who.int/fr/rpc/rpc-news/research-in-priority-areas-of-public-health-20202021.html