Azim Premji University Covid-19 Research Funding Programme 2020

Azim Premji University invites rigorous proposals for research funding of INR 5-20 lakhs for COVID-19 in the Indian context that addresses concrete results and insights leading to direct action and responses in the near term.      

We seek proposals that range across urban and rural settings in the broad areas described below, including but not limited to the objectives suggested here.

1. Studies on the effectiveness of various processes and interventions in reducing fatality, such as
   • Impact of quality of public health systems, filled positions versus vacancies in public health positions
   • Impact of community initiatives in rural/urban settings, IEC efforts, access to testing, deployment of Rapid Antigen Tests, lockdowns
   • Impact of public-private partnerships/collaboration in the areas of IEC, testing, surveillance, secondary/tertiary care
   • Impact of availability of testing, quality of contact tracing, rigor of testing of primary/secondary contacts
   • Study of the work of local elected representatives and their grassroots workers, bureaucracy, NGOs, SHGs and their effectiveness
   • Impact of locally quarantining and isolating versus centralized centres
2. Studies of Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, ANMs, and other frontline health workers
   • Span of frontline health workers in terms of population handled
   • Motivation of ASHA workers and others – emoluments and training delivered to them
   • Safety of ASHA workers, and other frontline workers
3. Studies on the public health system, such as
   • Assessing the role of various factors in effective diagnosis, control and treatment, such as the presence of a Primary Health Centre, increased numbers of frontline health workers, implementation of home isolation programmes
   • Identification of best-practices for protecting health-care workers and other front-line staff
4. Role of community in delivery of health services during the Covid-19 crisis, such as
   • Identification of and measuring the impact of best practices in the areas of community mobilization, involvement in various areas
   • Best practices on how non-Health NGOs, SHGs, community organizations have reoriented themselves to Covid related work and the impact this will have on both health and non-health areas
   • Impact of Local Self Governance in the form of active Gram Panchayats in rural areas or Area Sabhas, Ward Committees in urban areas
5. Barriers and approaches to scaling up of action, such as
   • Social, physical, economic and other barriers and opportunities to rapidly scaling up testing, quarantine, surveillance and care
   • Effectiveness of approaches to care in challenging environments like isolated areas, high-density communities like slums
6. Efforts to provide universal protection, such as
   • Best practice approaches to implement specific behavioural interventions (masks, distancing, etc.)
   • Challenges of special needs communities
   • Measurements of real mortality rates
   • Difficulties faced by non-Covid patients in accessing health care
   • Providing access and support to migrants, and those without Aadhaar and PDS
7. Role of technology and data analysis
   • Investigating the effectiveness of apps in improving contact tracing, identifying and tracking symptomatic and high risk individuals and reducing spread and mortality
   • Implementation of tele-health
   • Use of data and analysis from tests, sero-surveys, pro-active on-ground surveillance in identifying local clusters, containment management and limiting spread

We offer research funding ranging from INR 5-20 lakhs, with an outer time limit of 3 months.

We seek a tightly focused, 3-page proposal including a detailed description and justification of methods and study location, and a clear description of the expected outcomes, as well as the relevance of findings to informing and shaping future strategies in the near short-term. A lengthy introduction and literature justification is not required.

Interested applicants should submit their proposal online and upload documents mentioned below as a single pdf file:

• Proposal of not more than 3 pages
• Budget breakdown
• Anticipated timeline
• CV of all investigators                                    

Apply here: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/covid-19-research-funding-programme-2020.aspx 

Last date for submitting proposals is Sept 5, 2020.