The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in partnership with Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada has launched the Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI). The GHRI “supports and promotes the conduct and use of health research in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).” It is currently seeking letters of intent “from teams composed of Canadian and international experts in population health and global health research ethics who are interested in working with GHRI and its partners to undertake a case study on ethical issues and challenges relating to global population health research partnerships. The case study will draw upon state-of-the-art literature on global and population health research ethics. It will draw information from the experiences of 17-20 Canada-LMIC partnerships currently being supported by GHRI through the Teasdale-Corti program and by IDRC through its Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health program initiative.”
Some examples of issues that might be addressed in the case study can be:
- mapping out ethical issues and challenges relating to population health (including ecohealth) research and research partnerships in resource poor settings;
- an examination of whether – or how – the prevailing perspectives on research ethics can be extended, or applied, to population health research, especially in resource poor settings
- including an examination of how visions of ethical issues in different cultures, settings and disciplines could be reconciled;
- an examination of how lessons from the GHRI- and IDRC supported partnerships could
- contribute to informing ethical practices and ethical evaluation of population health research; and
- an examination of how the experiences of the GHRI- and IDRC-supported partnerships in tackling ethical dilemmas and issues could be used as a base for capacity-building in LMICs.
Around CAD 75,000 has been allocated for this opportunity for a period of 18-24 months. The applications are due by 20 January 2010. For more information, visit this link.
