Call for Proposals: EMRO/TDR Impact Grants

The 2024–2029 TDR strategy builds on the experience to support country-led implementation research that improves access to and scale-up of health interventions, strategies, and policies and strengthens health systems. They will work with implementers and social innovators, alongside researchers, to help democratize research and demonstrate that it is a useful and practical tool for people tackling health issues on the ground.

Priority Research Areas 

• TDR Global Challenges 
  • Country-led implementation research to improve access to quality health interventions.
  • Strengthening the capacity of people, institutions and societies to produce research evidence that is useful for the burden of infectious diseases of poverty. (strengthening the postgraduate training scheme or strengthening links between local institutions through information sharing on trainings on implementation research) Engagement and collaboration with the wider global health effort to promote and facilitate the role of research for development.
• Neglected Tropical Diseases 
  • Compare the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of physical (cryotherapy and thermotherapy) and local (antimonials) treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis.
  • Measuring the burden of snake bite envenoming and risk factors in EMR countries.
• Malaria and Vector Control 
  • Describe the epidemiology and assess the impact of malaria in urban settings in EMR, including identification of risk factors for infection.
  • Role of community health volunteers (CHV) in providing malaria service as part of the integrated community case management.
  • Behavior of invasive Anopheles stephensi in a new ecological niche in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
• Reverse Tuberculosis 
  • Evaluating the impact of contact investigation on the coverage of TB preventive treatment.
  • Evaluating the impact of adequate active screening on the coverage of TB preventive treatment.
• Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) 
  • To assess the feasibility and outcomes of integrated models of care for HIV, hepatitis and STIs in primary care.
  • To identify innovative solutions to scale up testing services and self-testing for HIV, hepatitis and STIs.
  • Monitoring the progress of reduction of zero-dose children under the Big Catch-Up initiative in high-priority countries (as a pointer to the recovery of the health system post-pandemic).
  • Assessing the BeSD (behavioral and social driver) towards the HPV vaccine in countries that recently introduced it in their routine immunization programmes.
• Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) 
  • Determine optimal (feasible, accurate and cost-effective) methods and metrics to monitor antimicrobial use and consumption in the community and healthcare settings and appropriate targets to monitor progress in reducing inappropriate antimicrobial use and consumption.
  • Determine the levels, patterns, trends and drivers of appropriate and inappropriate prescribing, use and consumption of access, watch and reserve (AWaRe) antibiotics across healthcare settings.
  • Identify the most effective, cost-effective, acceptable, and feasible multimodal infection and prevention control strategies for reducing different types of healthcare-associated infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens across geographical and socioeconomic settings.

Funding Information

• US$ 8,000–$10,000 per grant.
• Co-funding from domestic or other sources is encouraged.
• Study duration: 6–9 months

Eligibility Criteria 

• Applicants submitting proposals must be researchers or health professionals working in a public health institution under the umbrella of a Ministry of Health, university or research institution, or a nongovernmental organization from one of the eligible countries.
• Proposals may only be submitted in English, using the eTDR system.
• Applicants must demonstrate experience in operational and/or implementation research. This might include, but is not limited to, evidence of having been trained in operational/implementation research and being able to conduct research independently.
• Eligible Countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the occupied Palestinian territory.

For more information, visit WHO.