Enhancing capacity to apply research evidence in policy making

Purpose

Based on its remit to support a broad range of innovative biomedical research, the Wellcome Trust is responsive to the importance of using health research evidence in policy making and is committed to enhance capacity to facilitate this use. This call for proposals with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) aims to strengthen the capacity of policymakers to use health research evidence in policy-making and to expand the Wellcome Trust’s portfolio of funding in this area.

Objectives

• Develop and implement innovative strategies that enhance policy maker capacity and/or civil society capacity to employ health policy and systems research evidence in policy making and policy dialogue.
• Conduct rigorous evaluations of the strategies employed.

What's included

Up to ten groups will be selected for further support and small grants of up to US$15 000 each will be granted for proposal development. These small grants are intended to support:

• on-the-ground assessment of existing policy maker capacities and needs, which will inform the further development of interventions
• development of detailed proposals that describe precisely the interventions to be adopted
• development of evaluation designs for the selected interventions.

Requests may include support for personnel, services and supplies, equipment and travel.

Eligibility

This call focuses on groups based in low income countries, although up to 20 per cent of the grant can be used to support the involvement of participants from middle or high income countries.

It is anticipated that in most instances policy makers and/or civil society representatives would lead the proposing team. Teams composed of different organisations and actors (such as policy-makers, civil society representatives, knowledge brokers and researchers) are welcome to apply.

Teams submitting expressions of interest should demonstrate:

• engagement and commitment of policy makers and/or civil society representatives to the proposal
• expertise in health policy and systems research
• awareness of possible strategies to promote capacity for research use in policy making.

Application process

Brief expressions of interest should have been submitted to the Alliance by 16 January 2009. In the header of the email please put "Proposal: Capacity to Apply Research". The Alliance will notify all applicants of receipt of their application.

Expressions of interest will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Overall understanding of the nature of the call, and local capacity development needs with respect to enhancing the use of evidence in policy making.
• Soundness, innovation and likely impact of interventions identified.
• Organisational capabilities.
• Commitment of policy makers to the project.
• Appropriateness of budget (both for development grant and overall proposal).

The full call for proposals, including the template for the expressions of interest, is available from the Alliance website.

Deadlines

The 2009 competition is now closed. Decisions on this year’s applications will be made in February 2010.

Contacts

Please direct all questions concerning this call for proposals by email to the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research: alliancehpsr@who.int. The Alliance will post responses to these questions on its website for all potential bidders to read.