///Capacity development to facilitate delivery and uptake of new or improved medical interventions in African health systems - 2018

Capacity development to facilitate delivery and uptake of new or improved medical interventions in African health systems – 2018

Closed
Type of actionCoordination & Support Action (CSA)
Open date11 June 2018, 14:00
Close date11 October 2018, 07:00
Budget€9 million
Funding level100% of eligible costs

Call identifier: CSA2018HS


Go to EDCTPgrants

Call identifier: CSA2018HS

Description

Background
Universal health coverage is paramount to all the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The most significant impediments to ensuring this achievement are the incremental challenges in providing access to good quality, effective, preventive and curative products to all populations within a wide range of existing health systems. Currently, health systems in poverty-related diseases (PRDs) endemic areas in sub-Saharan Africa are either weak or not adequately prepared for delivery and uptake of new or improved medical interventions. Concerted collaborative efforts are needed to strengthen the governance, personnel and infrastructure for uptake as well as effective delivery and monitoring of the implementation of existing and new cost-effective interventions. In collaboration with WHO AFRO and TDR, EDCTP has supported small grants to individual scientists for implementation research conducted between researchers and national disease programmes. EDCTP also supports product-focused implementation research on delivery and uptake of clinical research, which also provides new opportunities for partnerships in the field of health systems and optimisation of health services.

Scope
Despite the abundant evidence on the safety and efficacy of available life-saving medical interventions, there is limited understanding of how to deliver these interventions effectively to populations that urgently need them. The purpose of this Call for Proposals is to support actions that will facilitate the translation of research results of medical interventions into policies and practices for national health programmes in order to strengthen health systems.

Proposals addressing the following activities are particularly encouraged:

  • development of methodological tools for the successful translation of research against PRDs into policies and practices for public health programmes. This includes health information system tools and analytics;
  • optimising strategies for widespread adoption and institutionalisation of research results within public health systems. This may entail the analysis of established methods and frameworks from the field of policy analysis to improve the understanding of the process of health policy development in a given sub-Saharan African country and in an international context;
  • successful adoption of one or more products coming out of previously-funded EDCTP grant(s) into national health policies.

Proposals should clearly define the activities and mechanisms to be used within the project, including details of any collaboration with national and/or public authorities, international organisations or commercial partnerships that will be established in order to achieve the expected impact.

The EDCTP considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EDCTP2 of up to EUR 2.25 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.

EDCTP considers that proposals for activities of up to 60 months duration would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.

Expected impact
Projects funded under this Call for Proposals should:

  • contribute to the achievement of SDG3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’
  • contribute to reduction of the burden of PRDs in sub-Saharan Africa
  • lead to improved methodological tools that will strengthen the functionality, recognition and performance of national disease control programmes in sub-Saharan African countries.

 

Eligibility
A proposal will only be considered eligible if:

  1. its content corresponds, wholly or in part, to the topic/contest description for which it is submitted
  2. it complies with the eligibility conditions set out below, depending on the type of action:
    1. At least one legal entity established in a Participating State* or a sub-Saharan African country
    2. Applications must include at least one legal entity in sub-Saharan African countries
    3. The requested EDCTP contribution per action shall not exceed EUR 2.25 million.

Procedure and application process

Submission and evaluation procedure
This call has a two-stage application procedure.

  • For the first stage, a letter of intent must be submitted by the first deadline. Successful applicants in the first stage will be invited to submit a full proposal for the second stage. Proposals for Stage 1 must be submitted by 11 October 2018 at 17:00:00 CET via EDCTPgrants. Evaluation results for Stage 1 are expected to be made available by 21 December 2018.
  • Proposals for Stage 2 must be submitted by 04 April 2019 at 17:00:00 CET via EDCTPgrants. Evaluation results for Stage 2 are expected to be made available by 25 July 2019.

 

Evaluation, scoring and thresholds
Following an admissibility and eligibility check, letters of intent and full proposals are evaluated by external independent experts. Proposals are evaluated according to the criteria Excellence, Impact and Implementation. Each criterion is scored between 0 and 5.

For the evaluation of first-stage proposals under a two-stage submission procedure, only the criteria ‘excellence’ and ‘impact’ will be evaluated. Within these criteria, only the aspects in bold will be considered. The threshold for both individual criteria will be 4. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the two individual scores, will be set at the level such that the total requested budget of proposals admitted to stage 2 is as close as possible to three times the available budget, and in any case, not less than two and a half times the available budget. The actual level will therefore depend on the volume of proposals and funding request per proposal received. The threshold is expected to normally be set at 8 or 8.5.

For the evaluation of first-stage proposals under a two-stage submission procedure, an arithmetic average (mean value) or median of the individual scores may be taken as the consensus score. The consensus report may consist of a collation of the individual evaluation reports or extracts from them.  As part of the evaluation, a review committee may be convened to reach consensus on the applications proceeding to the second stage.

For the evaluation of the second stage (Full Proposals), evaluation scores will be awarded for the criteria Excellence, Impact and Implementation. Each criterion is scored between 0 and 5. The threshold for individual criteria is 3 and the overall threshold for the sum of the three individual scores is 10.

The Coordinator has a ‘right to reply’ to the expert assessments (rebuttal procedure) at the second-stage evaluation.

The following aspects are considered under the evaluation criteria:

1. Excellence

  • Fit with the scope and objectives of the EDCTP2 Programme, the EDCTP strategic research agenda and the call topic description
  • Importance, relevance/pertinence and clarity of the objectives
  • Soundness of the concept and credibility of the proposed approach/methodology
  • Clarity, pertinence and importance of the strategic vision
  • Soundness of the concept
  • Quality of the proposed coordination and/or support measures

 

2. Impact

  • Call specific aspects as listed under ‘expected impact’ in each individual call
  • The extent to which the outputs of the proposed work would contribute, at the European, African and/or International level, to each of the expected impacts listed in the work plan under the relevant topic
  • Likelihood to result in major advances in the field
  • Effectiveness of the proposed measures to exploit and disseminate the project results (including management of IPR), and to manage research data where relevant
  • Sustainability of capacity beyond the end of the grant, where relevant
  • Contribution to networking, where relevant.

 

3. Quality and efficiency of the implementation

  • Quality and effectiveness of the work plan, including extent to which the resources assigned to work packages are in line with their objectives and deliverables
  • Appropriateness of the management structures and procedures, including risk and innovation management, and how responsibilities for research data quality and sharing, and security will be met
  • Complementarity of the participants within the consortium, and the extent to which the consortium as whole brings together the necessary expertise
  • Appropriateness of the allocation of tasks and resources, ensuring that all participants have a valid role and adequate resources in the project to fulfil that role
  • Feasibility and appropriateness of the methods and project management to achieve the objectives within the timeframe of the grant
  • Compliance with national and international standards of research, Good Clinical Practice, ethics and safety related issues
  • Participants have the operational capacity, to carry out the proposed work, based on the competence and experience of the individual participant(s)
  • Quality of the leadership and a clear and effective governance structure.

 

Financial provisions
The call budget is EUR 9 million.

The requested EDCTP contribution per project shall not exceed EUR 2.25. The funding level is 100% of eligible costs.

The South African Medical Research Council will support the EDCTP2 programme with a total cash contribution of up to ZAR 4.5 million (approximately EUR 300,000) to this Call for Proposals. This cash contribution is restricted in use by the EDCTP Association for funding participants’ actions resulting from this call for malaria research proposals which are legally established in Southern African countries. The call, evaluation and grant management are centrally managed by the EDCTP Association in line with the rules for participation of Horizon 2020.

Grant agreement
The Coordinator is required to sign a grant agreement with EDCTP (EDCTP2  mono-beneficiary or multi-beneficiary grant agreement) within three months of receipt of the evaluation outcome letter.  All participants in the action must sign a consortium agreement prior to grant agreement signature.

Application process

  • The application must be submitted online via EDCTPgrants
  • Only registered users of EDCTPgrants system can apply for grants and therefore you are advised to register on the system as soon as possible.

Documents & info

Documents

 

More information

Projects awarded under this call

ADAM
Malaria mass and focal drug administration to advance malaria elimination in Mozambique: accelerating programmatic implementation and policy translation

Fundaçao Manhiça (FM), Maputo, Mozambique, with partners in Mozambique and Spain
Project coordinator: Dr Pedro Aide (FM)
Starting date: 01 April 2020
Duration: 48 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,217,739
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2522

BLOCKRABIES
Blockchain high-coverage rabies post-exposure prophylaxis to achieve zero human rabies deaths in Africa

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Basel, Switzerland, with partners from Côte d’Ivoire, France, Mali and Switzerland
Project coordinator: Prof. Jacob Zinsstag (Swiss TPH)
Starting date: 01 April 2020
Duration: 48 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,250,000
Grant agreement:  CSA2018HS-2517

FEX-g-HAT
Capacity development to facilitate the delivery and uptake of fexinidazole for the elimination of Human African Trypanosomiasis

Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Geneva, Switzerland, with partners in Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, and Guinea
Project coordinator: Dr Florent Mbo (DNDi)
Starting date: 01 February 2020
Duration: 48 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,249,961
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2526

Integrated HIV/HTN
Leveraging the HIV platform for hypertension control in Uganda

Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration Ltd (IDRC), Kampala, Uganda, with partners from Uganda and the United Kingdom
Project coordinator: Ms. Jane Kabami (IDRC)
Starting date: 01 March 2020
Duration: 60 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,249,975
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2518

OPT-SMC
Optimising the impact of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention: improving delivery and building capacity for evaluation

Université de Thiès (UT), Thiès, Senegal, with partners from Switzerland and the United Kingdom
Project coordinator: Prof. Jean Louis Ndiaye (UT)
Starting date: 01 May 2020
Duration: 48 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,247,252
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2520

Revive IRTp
Revitalisation of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy in Kenya

Population Council (PC), Nairobi, Kenya, with a partner in Kenya
Project coordinator: Dr Harriet Birungi
Starting date: 01 March 2020
Duration: 60 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,250,000
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2521

SAVING
Building capacity to address implementation challenges for sustainable access and delivery of new vaccines in Ghana

University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana, with partners in Ghana and Switzerland
Project coordinator: Prof.  Margaret Gyapong
Starting date: 01 November 2020
Duration: 60 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,127,775
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2528

UPTAKE
Universally accessible HIV prevention technologies for African girls and young women through knowledge applied from behavioural economics: A behavioural science research to determine factors that facilitate future uptake of HIV prevention products and multi-purpose prevention technologies to prevent HIV and unwanted pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa

Stichting International AIDS Vaccine Initiative the Netherlands (Stichting IAVI), Amsterdam, the Netherlands with partners in Kenya and The United Kingdom
Project coordinator: Dr. Anatoli B. Kamali
Starting date: 01 November 2020
Duration: 36 months
EDCTP grant amount: EUR 2,239,590
Grant agreement: CSA2018HS-2525