Small research grants on the innovative use of GIS towards polio eradication
The Polio Eradication Programme in the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa is seeking applications for research grants ranging from US$8000 to US$12 000 to fund projects on the innovative use of geographic information systems (GIS) and other technologies for polio eradication and other public health uses.
“With these small grants, we are looking for many big ideas that will help document, validate and promote GIS technology for public health uses in general across the region,” said Pascal Mkanda, Coordinator of the Polio Eradication Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa.
The grand was announced on 10th October 2019, during the closing of a four-day GIS summit hosted by WHO in Brazzaville, Congo with more than 150 participants, with many of them from health ministries in the 47 WHO Member States
Interested researchers and innovators are encouraged to submit a proposal related to the use of innovative technologies for acute flaccid paralysis surveillance, polio outbreak response, environmental surveillance, supplemental polio immunization activities, containment, monitoring, evaluation, accountability, resource mobilization, partners’ collaboration, communication, logistics, administration and/or polio-free certification of the African Region.
The technologies and innovations in the proposed research should include but are not limited to the following:
- GIS, remote sensing, modelling, spatial and geostatistical analysis
- use of mobile technology and field data collection
- population estimation techniques and crowdsourcing for data collection and validation
- artificial intelligence and machine learning
- use of drones for vaccine delivery
- business intelligence and information use
- data management, integration and automation of data flow and big data.
This research grant is open to all government staff, academics, nongovernment organizations and the private sector with a deadline of 28 February 2020 to receive the letter of interest.
Interested candidates are encouraged to fill in the below letter of interest and share it with the grant focal points below. Upon receiving the letter of interest, shortlisted candidates will be communicated to submit a full proposal with detailed budget and team information. Successful applications will be communicated to initiate the administrative process, assign a WHO focal point for each project, plan for training webinars to cover the research methodology, and develop the draft zero of the manuscript for review and publishing.
Download the letter of interest (form)
To apply for this grant, you need to complete the below form, and send it to the below contacts:
- Hani Farouk Abdel Hai Mohamed
Head, Regional GIS Center, WHO Regional Office for Africa
Email: faroukh [at] who.int - Tereza Kaplanova
Polio / GIS Center Support Staff, WHO Regional Office for Africa
Email: kaplanovat [at] who.int