18 September 2018, 4pm 25 June 2018 (call opens in Je-S)
MRC Third call for research to improve adolescent health in LMIC settings
£4m is available. It is envisaged that 10-12 projects will be funded, usually up to 3 years’ duration but with a maximum of 5 years. There are no set budget limits; small and larger-scale projects are invited.
Applications may be led by PIs based at organisations in low and middle income countries (LMICs) as well as from PIs based in the UK.
If the PI is based in the UK, there must be clear partnership with, and scientific leadership from, co-investigators based in the LMIC where the project will take place.
The call seeks to provide the research evidence needed to effect real and practical changes to improve adolescent health in LMICs.
Applicants should clearly identify the health issues and/or risk factors to be addressed.
Proposals should explore how outcomes will be implemented within systems and seek to engage with related social and economic barriers within these systems.
Applicants should describe the pathway for how the proposed approach can be scaled, as well as highlighting any potential generalisability of findings to improve the health of adolescents in other settings.
Genuine interdisciplinary collaborations across social science, biomedical science and other disciplines are encouraged.
Basic research relevant to adolescent health, for instance basic, aetiological, and epidemiological research is not eligible for this call for proposals but is welcome for submission to the MRC through their standard research boards and panels.
The remit of this programme is broad and the 4 co-funders welcome proposals which address any major health issues that emerge at the adolescent phase of life.
LMICs are the countries on the DAC list
Adolescence is defined as between the ages of 10 and 19.
Proposals should consider the impact of gender and justify any focus on one gender.
Areas of particular research interest include:
- migration and displaced populations
- research in fragile states
- disabilities
- unintentional and intentional injury
- addiction
- tobacco
- mental health
- respiratory health
- neurodevelopmental disorders
- environmental exposures (such as endocrine disruptors)
- anaemia
- chronic disease (cancer, epilepsy, diabetes, etc.)
- biomarkers for adolescent disorders (such as nutrition)
- transitioning out of adolescence and quality of care during transition to adult specialists
- adolescent friendly health services.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to explore opportunities to consider:
- innovative and novel approaches – applicants may wish to consider proposing a milestone where the level of research risk is deemed high, or where one element of the proposal is entirely dependent on the success of another
- interventions with a preventative focus
- effectiveness studies
- implementation research
- intersectoral applications, such as education and health
- interdisciplinary collaborations across social science, biomedical science, and other disciplines including health economics and political sciences
- the social determinants of health and how these affect health as well as access and uptake of healthcare by adolescent populations
- using a range of quantitative and qualitative methods
- inclusion of innovative technologies and devices
- engaging adolescents and policy stakeholders in the development of research questions, plans and dissemination
- collection of disaggregated data and submission to data repositories.
Eligible research activities
The research approach taken should be clearly justified in the proposal indicating why it is the most appropriate and robust methodology to address the proposed research questions.
The following research activities are eligible for submission under this scheme:
- developing complex health interventions that explicitly address health needs of adolescent populations
- using methodologies to assess the effectiveness of interventions specifically for adolescents, including adaptation of interventions of known effectiveness in other populations
- implementation research questions that address issues faced in making interventions of known effectiveness accessible to adolescent populations within the health system
- research that explores health system barriers to effective healthcare for adolescents, including user and provider perspectives, social and economic barriers, as well as policy and governance challenges
- capacity building, networking and community engagement.
All funders are committed to supporting capacity building in research and encourage proposals that incorporate capacity building within the whole project of work.
Capacity-building elements should be set out in relation to the core intellectual agenda of the research proposal and not treated separately.
The focus should be on the quality and impact of the research, and how increasing research capacity contributes to this.
Proposals should demonstrate how capacity building for junior UK and LMIC researchers will lead to developing future scientific leadership.
Further details at URL above.