Advancing Innovative Smoking Cessation through Dissemination, Implementation and Training Grants Program

This Request for Proposal (RFP) will fund diverse strategies within GA’s strategic plan relating to its Dissemination, Implementation, and Training (DIT) work stream, tailored to the needs of respective countries or populations, that:

• increase awareness of locally available cessation options and their importance,
• correct widespread misperceptions about the relative risk of nicotine compared to combusted tobacco, and
• disseminate accurate and consistent messaging about the potential role of reduced-risk nicotine products for smokers who cannot or will not quit using traditional interventions.

Objective

• GA’s strategic objective is to accelerate comprehensive, science-based global efforts to end the smoking epidemic, with a focus on LMICs and marginalized populations in HICs.

Priority Areas

• Project approaches might include, but are not limited to, public health communications, educational interventions, public information campaigns, and community engagements that are highly-tailored to the priority population and setting such as:
  • Health communications and awareness campaigns designed to:
    • increase fact-based information about available smoking cessation options and
    • facilitate informed decision-making about how to quit smoking. Communications may be targeted to people who smoke or those who assist them in their cessation journeys (e.g., small-scale campaigns about locally relevant resources including NRT, Quit lines, or reduced-risk nicotine products; development of digital, website, print, or audio materials; community engagement events; stakeholder communications; identifying and using key opinion leaders; embedding DIT in existing community health education/disease prevention programs)
  • Dissemination activities designed to correct existing nicotine misperceptions AND accurately communicate the relative risks of tobacco products to stakeholders or people who smoke (e.g., communicating FDA’s Continuum of Risk by translating scientific evidence to lay audiences; network or coalition building to disseminate clear and consistent messaging; supporting accurate and complete reporting by media; implementation science models that describe approaches to correcting nicotine misinformation in challenging contexts or models that identify the underlying factors that contribute to misinformation and how to address them).
  • Training for frontline health care professionals, especially those that serve populations with higher smoking rates (e.g., education programs for providers who directly interact with smokers, including community health workers; systems-wide communications within public health practice, community settings, clinics, or other health care systems; continuing education for physicians; development of health care provider networks and events)
  • Education activities that address sociodemographic disparities in smoking cessation outcomes in LMICs or HICs (e.g., characterizing needs of priority populations seeking access to smoking cessation options to inform development of tailored programs; messages tailored to underserved populations with historically poor cessation outcomes or higher failed quit attempts; community-based participatory methods that directly engage people who smoke in the development of the program)
  • Education or training activities designed to increase research capacity in LMICs or among under-represented groups (e.g., conferences, webinars, or other in-person or virtual meetings; mentoring or research collaborations; dissemination of research and research methods to prioritized countries, priority populations, or low-resourced settings; development of training materials or published materials to increase reach of research).

Funding Information

• Awards for this announcement may not exceed USD 500,000 per project.
• The maximum duration shall not exceed 12 months.

Eligible Projects

• Types of projects that may be eligible for this funding announcement may include:
  • Single, small projects that can be executed in a short time period with limited resources.
  • Early or conceptual research to gain sufficient evidence to answer key exploratory, developmental, or foundational questions (e.g., qualitative or quantitative research designed for discovery; generation of new hypotheses; secondary data analysis of existing data sets).
  • Implementation research that aims to translate previous scientific findings into new contexts (e.g., tests of external validity for behavioral interventions; implementation models to explain factors that influence implementation or adoption outcomes).
  • Pilot, feasibility, or acceptability testing of new locally-effective interventions, public health programs, or new approaches to measurement, modeling, or methodology.

Geographical Focus

• GA’s goal is to fund investigator-initiated projects that generate new knowledge specific to populations disproportionately burdened by the smoking epidemic, and those that experience persistent tobacco-related health disparities. A geographic priority is countries with high smoking rates and disease burden from traditional tobacco use, with a focus on LMICs and the populations most at risk for premature morbidity and mortality. GA also prioritizes programs specific to marginalized populations within HICs with historically high smoking rates and those with poor cessation outcomes including, but not limited to, people of low socioeconomic status, sexual and gender minorities, people with mental health conditions or substance use disorders, and Indigenous peoples.
• Applicants should provide relevant information about the country or population of interest, a rationale for selecting the priority study population, and available resources to reach the population and implement programs as planned (e.g., existing professional networks, previous stakeholder engagement activities). If programs are specific to reduced risk nicotine products, programs should be conducted where those products are legally available. However, GA may also review applications for programs in localities where reduced risk nicotine products are not available depending on the aims and scope of the proposed program.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible institutions include academic, think-tank, and health-related research and science centers, and other collaborating centers and institutions with experience in related subject areas such as public health, behavioral health, psychology, epidemiology, economics, disease prevention, and health communications.
• Previous experience in research related to smoking cessation, tobacco control, marginalized populations, or harm reduction-informed approaches to public health is desirable but not required.
• Proposals should be submitted by entities registered in their country of origin with an ability to accept grants from not-for-profit foundations incorporated in the United States.

Evaluation Criteria

• The following criteria will be used to evaluate submissions:
  • Significance of the need/problem and potential to increase knowledge or public health practice
  • Program approach with rationale for program design, specific issue, priority population, intervention content, and procedures
  • Preliminary evidence and/or theory to justify the approach
  • Feasibility of the program plan, list of project deliverables, and timelines
  • Clearly defined objectives with basic evaluation measures for process or outcome evaluation and indicators that align with core elements of the program
  • The expertise and prior experience of the Principal Investigator and named staff, including demonstrated experience on similar programs
  • The research environment including description of adequate physical, financial, and intellectual resources to meet the aims of the proposed program
  • The communication and dissemination plan for results, as appropriate to the scope of the program
  • Budget relative to the program’s significance and contribution
  • Key organizational documents provided to GA as part of the due diligence process.

For more information, visit Global Action to End Smoking.