Apply for Implementation Research to Address Infectious Diseases Program 2025

This call is limited to applicants from LMICs who have been engaged, and who have expertise, in gender and intersectionality research applied to public health in urban settings, implementation research and/or infectious disease prevention and control.

This call aims to strengthen an intersectional gender lens in implementation research in urban health which will contribute to the implementation of TDR’s Intersectional Gender Research Strategy and aligns with the TDR Strategy 2024-2029.

Objectives

• The objective of this call is to use an intersectional gender perspective, generate evidence that helps to identify enablers and bottlenecks that impact the delivery of health interventions in urban settings. This includes:
  • generating evidence on how gender intersects with other factors of inequity to influence urban health outcomes shaped by specific contextual and structural factors, influencing barriers and enablers in access to health systems, health care and treatment; and
  • conducting intersectional gender analysis in research for implementation to generate new evidence and knowledge on the intersections of gender and other social variables that influence the way implementation strategies work to address urban health challenges.

Focus Areas

• The selected institution will conduct implementation research projects on one or more of the following areas, targeting infectious diseases of poverty, and adopting an intersectional gender lens:
  • Research aimed at identifying bottlenecks that impact access to interventions and delivery of health services in urban settings, by generating evidence on how gender intersects with other social variables, influencing access to healthcare and treatment, through implementation research.
  • Conducting intersectional gender analysis to understand how gender intersects with other social stratifiers to influence vulnerability to infectious diseases associated with climate variability and/or change, impacting Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) conditions and/or food insecurity or housing status in urban communities, such as urban slums.
  • To understand how gender norms, roles and relations influence planning, development and implementation of health interventions in urban communities within all levels (macro, meso, micro) of health systems.
  • Research aimed at understanding how infectious diseases of poverty are influenced by gender and social dynamics under a changing climate.
  • To understand how gender norms, roles and relations influence access to treatment and health care of infectious diseases for those subjected to gender-based violence in urban communities.
  • How, why and for whom implementation research strategies work, considering an intersectional gender approach and health systems lens in changing urban contexts.
  • Conducting intersectional gender analysis to understand how multi-sectoral engagement works while planning and implementing intervention strategies for urban health in different geographic contexts.
  • To understand how gender norms, roles and relations influence access to treatment and health care of infectious diseases for those experiencing mental health issues in urban communities.
  • Research on the intersection of gender and other axes of inequality in delivery and access to prevention and control approaches and products to prevent and control infectious diseases considering urban challenges.
  • Generating evidence to understand health literacy about prevention and control of infectious diseases of poverty and access to healthcare and rights among vulnerable groups  in urban communities.
  • Identifying how evidence-based interventions, tools and services should be modified or adapted to achieve sustained health impacts in real-world settings.
  • Determining the best way to introduce practical solutions into health systems and facilitating their full-scale implementation, evaluation and modification.

Funding Information

• Proposals will be considered for a total funding envelope of up to USD 60,000 per application, supporting a maximum of 2 applications.

Expected outputs

• The evidence generated from this research will help to address critical gaps in the delivery of effective urban health interventions and strategies from an intersectional gender perspective. They anticipate that the results can be effectively translated into actionable policies and effective delivery of interventions, particularly in emergency and epidemic contexts/scenarios like the recent COVID-19 pandemic. By understanding and generating evidence, they hope to inform future preparedness strategies, ensuring that interventions are more resilient, inclusive and context specific.

Eligibility Criteria

• TDR is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in science. Researchers are encouraged to apply irrespective of gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious, cultural and social backgrounds, or (dis)ability status.
• Research institutions and consortia are invited to submit proposals taking into consideration the following 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 any LMIC.
  • Applicants must demonstrate expertise in their knowledge of gender and intersectionality and have the capacity to apply an intersectional gender lens within their work.
  • All applicants must demonstrate a track record in implementation research, health systems, and infectious disease research in urban and peri-urban settings.
  • 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 reviewed on a competitive basis according to criteria such as scientific merit, relevance, gender and equity components, feasibility and public health impact of the project including capacity to deliver research results.

For more information, visit WHO.