The Besrour Centre: Global COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Impact Grant
Deadline Extension: Monday, April 24, 2023, 5:00 P.M. (EDT)
Background
The Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine (Besrour Centre) at the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), thanks to the generous support of the CFPC’s Foundation for the Advancement of Family Medicine (FAFM) and the Fondation Docteur Sadok Besrour, is seeking proposals for a Global COVID-19 pandemic innovation response.
This initiative is a response to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well being of nations. The pandemic has put immense pressure on health systems and as we move towards a post-pandemic phase, the focus is shifting towards building resilient primary health care.
The goal of Phase II of Global Co-RIG is to support family practice / primary care innovations that improve access to services and respond to the long-term effects of the pandemic, such as mental health, especially for the most vulnerable communities and those living in remote areas.
The family practice innovations that are likely to have a high degree of impact include education innovations, practice innovations, use of technology, and responses that address equity and inclusion. The request for proposal will contribute to the achievement of how family innovative practice will likely have a high degree of impact in reducing the long-term harms of COVID-19.
To achieve this, the Besrour Centre will support two proposals with different targets or approaches that fall into one of the following categories:
• New, innovative practice during the COVID-19 pandemic in family medicine training including curricular changes, inter-disciplinary education, or use of virtual curriculum delivery
• Practice-level innovations that respond to the needs of key populations that lack access to care or that the pandemic is targeting unequally
• Innovations to reduce the impact of phases three and four of the pandemic—the burden of delayed and neglected chronic disease, and the mental and other social determinants of health impacts of the pandemic
• Increased effectiveness to advocate for evidence-based, accountable, and equitable health care policies, policy framework s, and services
• Projects on mental health integration using a team-based approach are especially encouraged.
Eligibility Criteria
• Submitter(s) must be a family physician or a group of family physicians from a low- and middle-income country (LMIC)—including from diverse contexts linked to a university
• Proposed innovations must take place in a primary care setting, and may take a variety of formats
• Submissions may not be for drug trials but may involve innovation for therapeutic delivery/remote settings
Project Funds and Grants
The Besrour Centre aims to support a grant, valued up to C$50,000 in Canadian Dollars (CDN), in 2023.
An example of a fundable educational project is developing and evaluating virtual educational modules for countries where recently launched family medicine programs are at risk of stagnation or regression due to the pandemic.
Another example is the collation of context-specific family medicine data at the country granular level and the attempt to correlate with COVID-19 outcomes to extract lessons about the importance of primary care strengthening in the face of pandemics. We need to better understand how primary care should be integrated with the larger health system in order to be nimble and able to pivot in the face of crisis.
Applications are open to known Besrour Centre actors as well as potential new academic partners. Applications should not be geared to learners or fellows, but to experienced academics and researchers from LMICs. Applications that have academics collaborating across contexts are favorable.
Furthermore, proposals should outline how we can best increase capacity building for dealing with both emergencies and chronic lack of access to care in view of strengthening health care system resilience. The aim is to realize a sustainable initiative where best practices and lessons can be applied to various contexts in an emergency setting.
Deadline Extension: Monday, April 24, 2023, 5:00 P.M. (EDT)
Read more and download the Proposal Submission Checklist