UK’s Medical Research Council launched its fourth call for research to improve adolescent health in low and middle-income countries (LMICs)

Summary

This call for proposals seeks to provide the research evidence needed to effect real and practical changes to improve adolescent health in LMICs.

Applicants should clearly identify the health issues and/or risk factors to be addressed. Proposals should explore how interventions can be developed and implemented within systems and seek to engage with related social and economic barriers within these systems. Applicants should describe the pathway for how the proposed approach can be scaled-up, as well as highlighting any potential generalisability of findings to improve the health of adolescents in other settings.

We encourage genuine interdisciplinary collaborations across social science, biomedical science and other disciplines including health economics and political science. We are happy for proposals to be led by researchers based in the social sciences, or in other disciplines, depending on what is most appropriate to deliver the proposed research.

Basic research relevant to adolescent health, for instance, basic, aetiological, and epidemiological research is not eligible for this call for proposals unless it forms part of a broader applied research project exploring solutions to problems faced by adolescents. Purely basic research proposals and proposals with a primary focus on basic research (>50%) should not be submitted to this call but are welcome for submission to the MRC through our standard research boards and panels.