The focus for this round are the five strategic areas identified by the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2012 strategic paper "Shaping the future of health in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region: reinforcing the role of WHO", namely: health system development and strengthening; emergency preparedness and response; communicable disease prevention and control; maternal, child health and nutrition; and prevention and control of noncommunicable and mental health disorders with special emphasis on cross-cutting initiatives such as universal health coverage. Through a competitive process of selection, funds are provided to successful research proposals in these areas.

Objective of the grant

The general objective of the grant is to promote regional research in the five strategic areas of the Regional Office's work.

The specific objectives of this round are to:

• generate local knowledge relevant to the five strategic areas
• assist capacity-building for research through learning by doing and hands-on training
• strengthen the link between evidence generation and health policy-making
• enhance experience-exchange between the Region’s Member States.

Submission of research proposals

All proposals should be signed by the Principal Investigator and the head of the concerned institution and submitted in English only, along with Annex II of the application form "Research ethics checklist". Proposals that do not meet these criteria will be considered incomplete, and will not be processed.

Proposals should be submitted via email to: emrgorpd@who.int with a copy to emrgoier@who.int.

Deadline

The deadline for submission of completed applications is 31 December 2014. Any applications received after this date will not be considered for funding.

Subsidies and duration



The award amount will range from US$ 10 000 to US$ 20 000 for each proposal, and the proposed duration for which support is requested must not exceed 10 months.