INTRODUCTION
The College of Medicine (CoM) was established in 1991 as a constituent college of the University of Malawi. Its mission is “to be an academic centre of excellence in the training of doctors and other health professionals in clinical service and medical research, responsive to the health needs of
Malawi and its neighbours within the Southern African region”. Since 2015, the National Institutes of Health-Fogarty International Centre in the USA has been funding the CoM and University of North
Carolina to establish and roll-out the Malawi HIV Implementation Science Research Training (MHIRST) Program which aims at building and strengthening local capacity for designing and conducting research studies to generate evidence that accelerates the scale up of evidence-based
HIV interventions. In 2020, the Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) joined the M-HIRST program which will operate until 2025.
The M-HIRST program is seeking applications from postgraduate students, academics or research scientists from institutions that conduct health-related research or implement HIV programs in Malawi. The applicants are expected to conduct pilot HIV implementation research studies that identify facilitators or barriers for implementation of evidence-based HIV interventions or those that evaluate novel strategies to overcome barriers that negatively affect scale up of evidence-based HIV interventions. Implementation Science is in keeping with the Malawi National HIV Strategic Plan 2020-2025 (NSP 2020-2025) to which applicants must demonstrate familiarity with as it outlines the Malawi government’s key HIV strategies and interventions for achieving zero new HIV-infections
and the 95-95-951 treatment targets by the year 2030. However, proposals need to focus on a specific area of HIV prevention or the 95-95-95 targets and must be implemented within a period of 12 months.
ELIGIBILITY
You can apply for this small grant if you fulfill all of the following criteria:
- Currently enrolled in or completed a health-related postgraduate training program;
- Employed in an academic or research institution or non-governmental organization implementing HIV-related programs in Malawi or have strong linkages with public institutions or non-governmental institutions which have a track history of delivering HIV services.
- Have a supervisor or mentor with strong background in HIV research or service delivery; Applicants with a history of prior HIV-related publications will have an added advantage. Also, applicants who were not successful on previous M-HIRST grant applications but have addressed issues raised by reviewers are strongly encouraged to apply.
Applicants who do not propose an implementation science project or have no supervisor or mentor with proven expertise in HIV-related research will not be shortlisted. For examples of appropriate
implementation science projects, please email mhirstcoordinator@medcol.mw.
BUDGET
The maximum budget for each application should be US$10,000 which may include the following expenses: personnel, equipment, supplies, transport/travel, mandatory institutional overhead fees and ethics submission fees. We aim to award grants to 5-10 successful applicants.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested applicants are required to do the following;
Download the attached small grant application template to prepare their applications.
Seek a letter of support and biosketch from a senior academic or public health/clinical health practitioner with a track history in HIV-related research who will provide oversight in research implementation
Submit their updated bio sketch and all documents as a single PDF document to the CoM M-HIRST Project Coordinator – mhirstcoordinator@medcol.mw
Note: All biosketches are to be in line with the NIH template found here:
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm
Incomplete applications with missing documents will not be reviewed.
The deadline for receiving applications will be on Monday, 26th October 2020 at 23:59 hrs.
Applicants will be informed about the outcomes of their applications by 16th November 2020.