CFPs: TDR Impact Grants Scheme for Operational/Implementation Research

The call for applications is undertaken in close collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Astana Medical University and builds on long-standing collaboration with one of TDR’s supported Regional Training Centers in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The 2024 – 2029 TDR strategy builds on their 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.

Focus Areas

• TDR will focus on four major global health challenges affecting infectious diseases of poverty using a One Health approach (Human Health+Animal Health+Environment):
  • Epidemics and outbreaks
  • Control and elimination of diseases of poverty
  • Climate change’s impact on health
  • Resistance to treatment and control agents
• Some priority areas may include, but are not limited to:
  • Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and other STIs, vector control.
  • Integration approaches and models for infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCDs): these include research areas to tackle leading causes of mortality in the region in an integrated system with unfinished business of control of infectious diseases, with the link of potential climate change’s impact on integration models.
  • Health systems strengthening and primary health care: research on models of care to improve health system contact, integrated comprehensive primary care services and models that connect primary health care with secondary/tertiary services to provide holistic care.
  • Health inequities: research focused on disparities in health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations and approaches to address disparities to primary health care, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
• Guided by these priorities of TDR, this call supports the generation of evidence from local research for the prevention and control of infectious diseases of poverty in WHO Regional Office for Europe countries. The Call emphasizes the importance of using implementation/ operational research for ALL of the priority areas. In addition, it welcomes research that links between healthcare delivery, primary health care, disease control programmes with research/academic institutions.

Funding Information

• Up to US$ 15 000 per project, including an estimate of open access publication costs. Co-funding from domestic or other sources is encouraged
• Duration: Projects should be able to be completed within a period of up to 12 months.

Eligible Countries

• Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan

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 countries or areas which are listed.
• 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. Such training could include the TDR Implementation Research Toolkit, the MOOC (massive open online course) on implementation research, or another formal research training experience.
• They are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusivity in science. Applications from first-time qualified young researchers and female researchers strongly encouraged.

Evaluation Criteria

• Each application will be screened for compliance with the eligibility criteria. Following this, each eligible application will be assessed independently by at least two reviewers, and scores will be assigned based on the sets of criteria. The highest scoring applications will be recommended for funding.
• They encourage applicants to review their own application against the criteria above before submitting.

For more information, visit eTDR.