Elrha announces Call for Research Proposals to support the COVID – 19 Response in Humanitarian Settings

Deadline: 4 May 2020

Elrha is launching an urgent funding call for research proposals to support the COVID-19 response in humanitarian settings.

The call aims to fund public health research that will produce robust findings that will contribute to the effectiveness of the current humanitarian response and increase the evidence base for future responses to similar infectious disease outbreaks.

This Call focuses on identified priorities related to the current COVID-19 outbreak in humanitarian settings in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Proposals will be eligible for research that targets:

Refugees or IDPs in camps or urban humanitarian settings, or conflict-affected people in humanitarian settings in LMICs
Health systems and health care workers supporting the COVID-19 response in humanitarian settings in LMICs.

The scope of the call covers research that will strengthen the evidence base on how to improve public health outcomes by directly informing the response to the current COVID – 19 outbreak.

Topics

Proposals addressing any of the below topics will be eligible:

Innovative solutions
Supporting existing health care delivery
Predicting outbreaks
Social science behavioural research
Co-ordination and sharing

Timeline

Elrha aims to fund rapid research which will directly inform the response to the current COVID-19 outbreak. Research teams will need to be able to start research activities as soon as possible so the findings inform the current response.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants can be based in any country in the world and must apply as part of an established organisation.
The research team should include academic and humanitarian partners, as appropriate. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that their proposed research is relevant, feasible and ethical. Applicants must be willing to accept the Elrha Grant Agreement without negotiation, to enable rapid contracting.

Applications must demonstrate inclusion of appropriate research partners to ensure the feasibility of conducting research and ensuring rapid utilisation of findings to inform the response. Study teams must include research expertise required to deliver high quality and rigorous research findings: inclusion in the study team of an academic from a research institution (national and/or international) is strongly encouraged. Applications which propose to undertake primary data collection within a humanitarian setting in a LMIC must demonstrate inclusion of a local humanitarian operational partner to ensure relevance of research question and access to study location.