The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) hereby announce a jointly funded call on the research theme of the global fight against communicable diseases by developing the capacity in the handling and prevention of these.
The call for applications period has now ended
The processing of the received applications is now in progress. Applicants will receive a decision in mid-June.
The MSB and Sida will together fund a three-year program with the aim to increase cooperation between scientists from Sweden and in developing countries within the research area of communicable diseases. The overall intention is to increase the ability to combat the global spread of contagious diseases (which currently threaten both developed and developing countries) through knowledge production in terms of research results.
The program will start in 2011 and with approximately 20 milion SEK available in the first year, it will contribute to an increase in capacity to limit the spread and impact of contagious diseases. The scope of this call covers major threats and challenges to health and society, both of mutual interest to Sida and the MSB, and addresses sources, pathways and mitigation measures.
General scope
The aim is to generate knowledge that can be utilised to address current and future challenges in the detection, identification, monitoring, treatment, prediction and prevention of communicable diseases in humans, as well as the impact on domestic animals with regard to inter-species transfer. The call also addresses research on how climate change might affect communicable diseases.
Other research areas of importance are new technologies, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and computerized mapping applications to detect global pathways of infectious diseases. These topics are of strategic importance for capacity building efforts in developing countries and of practical value for international rescue operations. Furthermore, technical applications such as these will serve as important counter-measure tools in the fight against infectious diseases.
The varied understanding and perception of health, diseases and treatments in different societies and cultures are crucial to understanding institutional and individual behaviour during an outbreak of a communicable disease. Therefore we will also consider applications concerning development-oriented research on contagious diseases versus health systems, public health and behavioural sciences.