Background
Failure to translate research findings into policy and practice impedes research from achieving maximum public health benefit. New products and/or novel clinical interventions (i.e., new drug combinations/new formulations, clinical management algorithms), for poverty-related diseases (PRDs), may not reach the target populations, especially in resource-poor settings such as sub-Saharan Africa, because of challenges in ensuring the delivery and uptake of medical products into clinical practice. Further, barriers to adherence may compromise the effectiveness and public health benefit of new interventions. Therefore, concerted efforts by multiple stakeholders are needed to maximise the use of available, efficacious products and interventions in order to ensure that these innovations achieve their full potential in real-life clinical and community settings.
Scope
The purpose of this call for proposals is to support distinct strategic actions to translate medical interventions of proven efficacy (diagnostics, drugs, vaccines, and microbicides) into routine care. Proposals may include testing of delivery methods to increase population coverage, retention in care and adherence to the intervention. Proposals must focus on PRDs in the scope of the EDCTP2 programme and should leverage major support from other funders. The study(ies), which may be interventional or non-interventional in design and which must take place in sub-Saharan Africa, should be presented in detail and with clear justification as to why this is the appropriate design to provide robust evidence that can lead to policy change at national, regional and/or international level. Proposals must include a landscape analysis of the most important product-related implementation research gaps to justify the importance of the proposed research. Proposals must include a clear, credible plan of the pathway to achieving policy change or uptake within a defined timeline. This could relate to products that are not licensed or not eligible for reimbursement but then the applicants must indicate a credible uptake plan. The EDCTP Association considers that proposals for actions of between 24 and 48 months duration would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected impact
Projects funded under this call for proposals should:
Eligibility
A proposal/application will only be considered eligible if:
Notes
*The Participating States (European Partner States) are Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
**The following sub-Saharan African countries: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Democratic People’s Republic), Congo (Republic), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Submission and evaluation procedure
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.
Evaluation, scoring, and thresholds
Following an admissibility and eligibility check, full proposals are evaluated by external, independent experts. Proposals are evaluated according to the criteria Excellence, Impact and Implementation (see Article 15 of the Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation Regulation No 1290/2013). Each criterion will be scored out of 5. The threshold for individual criteria will be 3. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, will be 10.
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. For each indicative budget-split in the call conditions, 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 all proposals involving human participants, and/or human tissues, cells or personal data, the evaluation process will include an assessment of ethical issues.
The following aspects are considered under the evaluation criteria:
1. Excellence
2. Impact
3. Quality and efficiency of the implementation
For this call for proposals, the Coordinator has a ‘right to reply’ to the expert assessments (rebuttal procedure).
Financial provisions
Grant agreement
Participants in actions resulting from this call for proposals will be required to conclude a consortium agreement prior to the conclusion of the General EDCTP2 grant agreement (multi-beneficiary).
Application process
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