Deadline- October 26, 2012
Countries/Region- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Philippines, Yemen, Zambia
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with President Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI), which leverages the whole of the United States Government (USG) to collaboratively advance global health, USAID would like to enhance its long-time collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) now focuses on USG global health objectives, including ending preventable child death through accelerated reduction in under-five mortality.
To accelerate progress in USG global health priority areas, such as ending child preventable deaths, USAID and NIH are collaborating on a new program called Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Health to support collaborative research projects on implementation science.
PEER Health is a competitive grants program that supports scientists from USAID-focus countries who are collaborating with NIH supported researchers on implementation science projects reflecting the health priorities of focus country researchers and governments. The program intends to catalyze high quality, collaborative research projects that will address research-to-practice barriers and constraints while simultaneously building professional capacity and cross-sectoral linkages, particularly between local public health and research institutions and USAID missions. Drawing upon the capacity and investments in global health research at NIH, PEER Health will achieve the following-
- Leverage research capacity developed by the scientific community, including NIH, to accelerate reductions of under-five mortality and to advance countries’ strategic health goals as articulated in GHI country strategies and child survival plans through collaborative research partnerships
- Encourage research to improve the uptake of efficacious health interventions, and to inform and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions in order to maximize health impact and accelerate reduction in under five mortality
- Strengthen collaborations among USAID Missions, local researchers, and NIH-affiliated investigators to enhance the impact of research and innovation on public health outcomes and contribute to the evidence-base needed for policy decisions and accelerated progress towards country health objectives
- Strengthen in-country research capacity.
More specifically, applications for PEER Health funding should propose implementation research around child survival such as-
- Innovative health delivery solutions or interventions to reduce child morbidity and mortality that are context-sensitive, and/or cost-effective.
- Improved methodologies that address specific barriers or constraints for optimizing for time-to-effect, sustained coverage, and long-term impact to accelerate reduction in under-five child mortality.
- Innovative approaches, guidelines, or scenarios for integrating and scaling up effective child health interventions.
- The proposed research projects may include utilizing clinical and observational research methods, medical and social epidemiology, health economics, informatics, operational research, marketing and decision analysis, and other related disciplines. Research around neonatal survival is particularly encouraged.
Eligibility-
- Applicants submitting proposals to PEER Health must be citizens of an eligible country affiliated with and permanently based at an academic or government-managed research or healthcare institution in a developing country included on the PEER Health eligible country list (see below). Employees of locally-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) may not be PIs but are encouraged to partner with researchers based at eligible institutions and may receive limited PEER Health grant funds through their partner PIs. Researchers from non-eligible countries and/or for-profit firms in PEER Health-eligible countries may participate as co-investigators in projects using their own resources but may not be PIs or receive PEER Health grant funds.
- Applicant’s Eligible Categories
- No previous NIH funding
- Previous or current NIH Trainee
- Current financial support from NIH grant or contract
- Developing country researchers who apply must either be actively engaged or plan to be engaged with an intramural or extramural NIH researcher on their PEER Health project. Applicants should demonstrate how they are leveraging their NIH partner’s research capacity that has resulted from previous or current NIH investments. Therefore, applicants are also encouraged to use their research networks to find an NIH partner.
- The requirement of having PEER Health applicants partner with an intramural or extramural NIH researcher on PEER Health projects is intended to reflect the rationale of the PEER Health program to leverage USG scientific investments to enhance USG health development goals.
Award
Budget requests should be developed commensurate with the support needed to achieve the project goals and shall not exceed $150,000 per year for up to three years. The number of awards is subject to the availability of funds. The release of each annual funding increment is contingent on the project meeting annual financial, collaborative and technical reporting requirements.
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