Submissions Open for PHRG New Investigator Grant Program (Singapore)

The overarching goals of a population health approach are to maintain and improve the health status of the entire population and to reduce disparities in health status between population groups.

This would include new ‘Precision Health’ models that shift away from broad-based interventions to interventions that are tailored to maximise impact on high-risk groups (e.g., by combining clinical/phenotypic data, genetic data, behavioural data, digital data).

Focus Areas

• To achieve this, the Population Health Research Grant (PHRG) will fund research proposals that seek to improve health outcomes through a population health approach under the following Research Areas:
  • Health Promotion and Preventive Health
  • Health Services Research

Themes

• The following Research Themes have been prioritised by MOH:
  • Mental Health
    • This theme will fund research catering to the spectrum of patients with mental health conditions, from children and adolescents in schools, to working adults, to elderly patients. Particular attention will be given to research that improves access to mental healthcare in the community and supports the integration of primary and specialist mental healthcare.
  • Care for Mothers and Children
    • This theme spans the continuum of care from pre-conception, pregnancy and childbirth to infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and research should address metabolic health, mental health and cognitive development of children and their mothers.
  • Population Mobilisation and Improved Access in the “War on Diabetes” and Other Common Chronic Diseases
    • This theme can cover new models of care, strategies, and research pertaining to patient behaviour and education, as well as to create change and societal shifts in enabling access to healthcare for patients with diabetes or other common chronic diseases.
  • Effective Use of Technology to Improve Health
    • This theme will fund research that seeks to identify and create innovative models of care in the areas of telehealth and telemedicine, including for health promotion and preventive health, systems integration and databases, and privacy protection and data security.
  • Prevention and Preparedness for Healthy Ageing
    • This theme seeks to fund research into ideas that can extend healthy and functional lifespan and reduce the impact of disability, with a view for translation or application of solutions that can have a positive impact on their seniors.
  • Care for Complex Patients
    • This theme should address the needs of this patient population, including healthcare access, self-management, and care coordination. This theme will also support research targeted towards allied health and multi-disciplinary team-based care pertaining to the delivery of integrated care, including both medical and non-medical professionals. Strategies that have a community-based focus will be prioritised.
  • Sustainable and Efficient Care Delivery
    • This theme addresses the need to improve the sustainability and efficiency of their healthcare delivery system through improving resourcing and allocation, and approaches such as Value-Based Care. This theme will support research that seeks to optimize resource allocation, improve healthcare manpower productivity, and increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery without compromising quality.
  • Palliative Care
    • Over the years, Singapore has been enhancing the quality, affordability and accessibility of palliative care services. They have a variety of palliative care options such as the inpatient hospice palliative care, home palliative care and day hospices to cater for different needs and preferences of treatment and places of death. However, with evolving palliative (and end-of-life (EOL)) care models, in addition to challenges such as the current COVID-19 pandemic significantly altering traditional views on care delivery, they are keen on exploring how they can adopt and/or adapt existing palliative care models to offer more holistic, person-centric and cost-efficient options.
  • Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM)
    • This theme will fund research that seeks to understand the prevalence, attitudes and health seeking behaviour of their population with regard to T&CM, with a focus on how Western medicine and T&CM can be used safely together.
  • Health Systems Research
    • Besides improving various care models serving different groups of patients, research at a health systems-level could potentially yield important insights into system-level interventions or policies that may impact health on a wider or deeper scale.
  • Rehabilitation (Rehab)
    • Rehabilitation is the principal core intervention for disability. MOH has launched the National One-Rehab Framework aimed at enhancing patient outcomes for six major rehab conditions. PH Research is a key component to evaluate the characteristics, systems, outcomes and trajectories to develop precision-guided PH. HSR will encourage cross-collaboration between the acute, primary and community care providers to develop novel ways of improving rehabilitation care across the care continuum including Interprofessional Care, Extended and Expanded Care provision, Rehab Outcomes Research, Pre-Habilitation in the Healthier SG construct, Early Supported Discharge, Return to Employment, Technology leverages and Telerehabilitation.

Categories

• The PHRG will be open for grant calls in two separate categories to meet different objectives:
  • PHRG Open Category: To allow space for researchers to identify emerging areas of need and discover novel ideas that may contribute significantly to health outcomes in the medium- to long-term, the PHRG Open Category welcomes applications on all research topics as long as the scope is within the Research Areas as articulated above. However, if your proposed research is aligned with one or more of the above themes, it would be helpful to articulate this in your proposal write-up.
  • PHRG Thematic Category: To allow the grant scheme to specifically address MOH’s areas of pressing research needs, only proposals with scope falling within the specific Research Themes can apply.

Funding Information

• The PHRG-NIG will provide a funding quantum of up to S$130,000 per project (inclusive of up to 30% indirect costs) for 2 years. Projects involving prospective patient/subject recruitment may apply for a funding duration of up to 3 years, subject to the same funding quantum.
• Different caps apply for the two categories:
  • PHRG Open Category: Up to $1.95M (inclusive of up to 30% indirect costs) for up to 3 years. Projects involving prospective patient/subject recruitment may apply for up to 5 years.
  • PHRG Thematic Category: No stipulated caps in funding quantum or duration. Quantum and duration to be deliberated during the co-creation and review process.

Eligibility Criteria

• PI must have a PhD and/or MBBS/BDS/PharmD/MD and/or other appropriate Postgraduate Qualification (at least a Master’s Degree) in areas relevant to the proposed research.
• For proposals involving patients, the PI or co-I should be SMC registered; or should be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC registered collaborators. It is recognized that some studies may be pre-clinical and not require the PI to be SMC registered.
• Only one Principal Investigator (PI) is allowed per application. The number of applications by an individual (as PI) is capped at 1 grant application per grant type in a grant call.
• Additional Eligibility Criteria:
  • Hold a primary appointment in a local publicly funded institution and salaried by the institution.
  • Be an independent PI with a demonstrated track record of research as evidenced by the award of nationally competitive funding (international funding to be considered on a case-by-case basis) or substantial publication record.
  • Have a laboratory or clinical research program that carries out research in Singapore.
  • Hold a minimum of 9 months’ employment with a local Singapore institution. Upon award, the PI must agree to fulfill at least 6 months of residency in Singapore for each calendar year over the duration of the grant award.
  • No outstanding reports from previous BMRC, NMRC grants and other national grants.

Review Criteria

• PHRG Open Category: Full proposals will be sent for scientific review by international experts, before the PHRG Steering Committee reviews and makes final funding recommendations. The review process will take about 5 months after the application closes.
• PHRG Thematic Category: LOIs will be evaluated by the PHRG Steering Committee, and shortlisted applications will be invited to submit full proposals. Full proposals will be sent for scientific review by experts, before the PHRG Steering Committee reviews and makes final funding recommendations

Evaluation Criteria

• Selection of successful proposals would be based on the following evaluation criteria:
  • High quality scientific research
  • Proposed research topic should be population health research of importance to the health system in Singapore. Provided they are scientifically meritorious, proposals which address the set themes would be given priority consideration.
  • Demonstrate the potential to further the investigators’ career to become a full-fledged independent PI.

For more information, visit NMRC.