Call for proposals – Maximising the impact of EDCTP research: translation of research results into policy and practice

17 December 2014

Today, EDCTP published its third call for proposals under its new programme. The purpose of this call is to accelerate translation of research findings from EDCTP-funded activities into policy and practice in order to maximise their public health impact in sub-Saharan Africa. This call involves a single-stage application procedure and full proposals must be submitted via EDCTPgrants by 16 March 2015. The evaluation results will be available by 30 June 2015. The indicative call budget is 3 million EUR and the EDCTP contribution per grant shall not exceed 500,000 EUR.

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Scope

Proposals should focus on:

  • Translation and uptake of research findings into policy guidelines and defined changes in health systems or clinical practice, including advancing public health interventions
  • Developing methodological tools for the successful translation into public health programmes or practices
  • Optimising strategies for widespread adoption and institutionalisation of research results within the public health systems.

Applications must be based on research findings from activities previously funded by EDCTP. Applications from multidisciplinary consortia are particularly encouraged.

Background

Failure to translate research findings into policy and practice prevents research from achieving maximum public health benefit. Despite substantial investment in clinical research in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the exploitation and use of research results beyond academia is often limited.

These barriers to an efficient uptake of research results are, among others:

  • Limited opportunities for engagement between researchers and policy-makers
  • Lack of experience in exploiting research results beyond academia
  • Structural and cultural differences between research and policy-making
  • Health managers and policymakers having to deal with a large volume of research evidence
  • Difficulties in adapting evidence from systematic reviews in order to make it locally relevant.

Grant agreement

A grant agreement with EDCTP should be signed within three months of receipt of the conditional award letter.

Please note that grant awarding by EDCTP will depend on the successful conclusion of a delegation agreement between the European Commission and the EDCTP Association for implementation of the EDCTP2 programme. Currently, the delegation agreement is in the process of being finalised.