COR NTD announce sixth edition of the Small Grants Program to support African researchers
The African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation), through the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD), is seeking proposals for both operational and implementation research on ‘’Emerging Challenges facing Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) program implementation in Africa’’.
This sixth edition of the Small Grants Program (SGP VI) is to support African researchers in both early and mid/late career to undertake operational or implementation research aligned with the goals established in the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases. SGP VI is comprised of two small grant funding tracks:
- Small grants for junior researchers
- Small grants for mid-career and/or senior researchers.
The program duration of this edition is 10 months. Applications must focus on the five preventive-chemotherapy (PC) NTDs (lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, soil transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis, and trachoma). Eligible proposals may focus on:
Implementation and/or operational research that aims to improve the effectiveness of NTD programs. This may include:
- Identifying factors that hinder equitable delivery of NTD program interventions to vulnerable groups.
- Developing, testing, and scaling practical solutions that are evidence-based, adaptive, and context-specific.
- Identifying ways to improve uptake, adaptation, and adoption of existing evidence-based strategies, tools to achieve elimination and control targets.
- Studies to develop or validate innovative new diagnostic technologies to support NTD program implementation and improvement in operations.
This edition of the Small Grants Program includes several new focus areas:
- Testing new models for post-validation surveillance or integrated surveillance strategies for trachoma and lymphatic filariasis. As NTD programs achieve success and scale down mass drug administration, implementing surveillance as part of program monitoring and evaluation to assure that program goals are sustained has emerged as a priority.
- Development of scalable solutions to the integration of morbidity management and disease prevention (MMDP) services into the national health system
- Developing and testing cost-effective, scalable, community-based strategies for vector collection and xenomonitoring in onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis hotspots
- Testable solutions to improve equitable access to NTD interventions for vulnerable populations (e.g. nomads, groups in conflict zones, hard-to-reach areas, refugees, etc.
Maximum funding per award: USD 30,000
Call Opening date: September 01, 2022, 08:00 GMT
Call closing date: September 30, 2022, 17:00 GMT
Projected Announcement of awards: December 12, 2022, 15:00 GMT
Successful proposals will be facilitated by implementing partner, ARNTD.