About

The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) and the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) are pleased to announce the 2025–26 call for applications for the Joint WPRO/TDR Impact grants for regional priorities focused on implementation research on communicable diseases.

The 2024–2029 TDR strategy builds on their experience to support country-led implementation research that improves access to and scale-up of health interventions, strategies, and policies and strengthens health systems. They will work with implementers and social innovators, alongside researchers, to help democratize research and demonstrate that it is a useful and practical tool for people tackling health issues on the ground. TDR focuses on four major global health challenges affecting infectious diseases of poverty using a One Health approach:

• Epidemics and outbreaks

• Control and elimination of diseases of poverty

• Climate change’s impact on health

• Resistance to treatment and control agents

Areas of Research

• This call aims to facilitate and strengthen public health-oriented implementation research focused on reaching unreached populations, primarily through integrated health service delivery in the Western Pacific Region. Implementation research activities supported by this call may be complementary to those supported by other stakeholders interested in these research areas:

  • Promoting integrated service delivery: The Western Pacific Region is striving to move from the delivery of vertical disease-oriented programmes to integrated service delivery that is person-centred and more efficiently meets the needs of unreached populations. This call will therefore prioritize research that:

    • supports progressive transitioning from vertical to integrated delivery of services for addressing issues impacting under-served or unreached populations;

    • supports the uptake of lessons from vertical programmes that effectively reach unreached populations for strengthening the general health system and enabling communities and individuals.

  • Promoting innovations and systems approach to reach the unreached: The Region’s populations do not have equitable access, quality and financial protection for essential health services. For example, these may include:

    • enabling health systems and services to identify unreached groups and engage them in the development of service models that meet their needs;

    • innovative approaches to the collection, analysis and use of data for decision-making.

  • Promoting multisectoral and One Health approaches: Research is needed to understand the lifestyle factors underlining the vulnerability to airborne, waterborne and vector-borne diseases as well as interplay between these disease outbreaks and climate or environmental changes in the Western Pacific Region.

Funding Information

• Up to US$ 15,000 per grant. Co-funding from domestic or other sources is encouraged.

• Duration: The maximum duration for the study is 12 months. 

Eligible Countries

• The call is open to primary investigators who are based in low and middle-income countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region including: American Samoa, Cambodia, China, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Viet Nam.

Application Requirements

• Please include:

  • Duly completed and signed research proposal form

  • Acknowledgement letter signed by an appropriate person

  • Current curriculum vitae of principal investigator.

Eligibility

• TDR is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in science. Researchers are encouraged to apply irrespective of gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious, cultural and social backgrounds, or (dis)ability status:

  • proposals may only be submitted in English;

  • research proposed must be conducted in the Western Pacific Region;

  • the Principal Investigator must be based in an institution located in a low or middle- income Western Pacific country or territory, including national tropical/communicable disease control programmes, ministries of health, academic institutions, research institutes and nongovernmental organizations;

  • the research project must relate to the objective and scope described in the present call and include a strategy for engagement of key stakeholders in the research process;

  • proposals submitted should include an acknowledgment letter signed by the manager of the programme area or the person in charge of the programme or institution related to the project at the appropriate level of the public healthcare services (e.g. primary health care unit, municipal secretary of health, state department of health, or national ministry or secretary of health). The acknowledgment letter does not mean there is a need for a clearance for the project, as no technical assessment is needed at this level;

  • applicants must demonstrate past experience in operational and/or implementation research. This might include, but is not limited to, evidence of having been trained in operational /implementation research and being able to conduct research independently.

Post Date: May 27, 2025