Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo (IDRC)

Alcance

IDRC is providing preliminary information on this funding opportunity to allow applicants time to prepare their applications. The funding opportunity will be launched on February 26, 2024. Through the anticipated call, up to five institutions will be funded to establish regional hubs in the Global South. These hubs will initiate and manage research sub-grants in West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa.  

Overview  

The climate crisis disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, exacerbating health disparities and straining health-care systems globally. Building resilient health-care systems is vital in low-income countries with limited resources, where most health-care workers, mainly women, are inadequately supported to respond effectively to climate-induced health emergencies and disease outbreaks. Further, the significant health co-benefits from climate interventions need to be identified and integrated in climate mitigation and adaptation policies, thus providing critical opportunities to maximize health gains.  

Given the breadth and overlap of climate-related risk factors and the complexities of measuring, mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, the health-sector response needs to be based on evidence that is generated from multisectoral research findings that go hand in hand with the overall national, regional and global climate response. In addition, the health-sector response ought to be grounded in community-based responses that are co-created with local communities, grassroots organizations and civil society. These responses need to be intersectoral, integrated and evidence based. However, research and practice are still too siloed by discipline and organizational barriers. The gendered impact of climate change is enormous but understudied and not adequately integrated into countries’ national adaptation plans, nationally determined contributions and other climate-action policies. There is a pressing need for Global South research leadership to generate evidence that promotes greater inclusion and seeks to redress gender inequality in the context of climate change and health.  

Approach  

To help address critical knowledge gaps at the intersection of climate change and health, this funding opportunity seeks to establish regional hubs on climate change and health — one each in West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. Each hub will be managed by a regionally based organization or consortium of organizations. The selected regional hub will be tasked with establishing, managing and supporting a cohort of research sub-grants in their respective region. The selected hubs will be expected to run one or more open competitive calls to identify and select research projects in their corresponding region. It is expected that the selected projects will represent linguistic, gender and geographic diversity across the respective region; diversity across thematic areas relevant to climate change and health; diversity based on different determinants and attributes of vulnerability; and diversity of involved stakeholders such as policymakers, civil society and private-sector representatives.

This anticipatory funding opportunity will be open to individual organizations or consortia headquartered in the respective regions (West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa), with preference given to organizations in low- and middle-income countries. The anticipatory funding opportunity will not be open to individuals or government ministries, and agencies or branches, offices and chapters of international organizations, but it is open to public research institutes, think tanks and universities.   

Applicants must have independent legal status (or “legal personality”) and be capable of contracting in their own right and name, receiving and administering funds, and have the authority to direct proposed project activities.   

The full list of eligibility requirements will be published along with the funding announcement in February 2024.  

Availability of funds  

IDRC’s financial contributions are subject to availability of funds. Should IDRC’s funding levels not be available or decrease due to unforeseen circumstances, IDRC reserves the right to withdraw the anticipatory call for applications, reduce, defer or suspend financial contributions to grants offered as a result of this funding opportunity.  

The maximum amount available is anticipated to be up to CAD4 million per hub for up to five years. This amount may increase with additional partner funding pooled through IDRC. Note that IDRC is dedicated to identifying and developing collaborations with other funding organizations and stakeholders to enhance the availability of funding for this strategic initiative, and to create, where appropriate, opportunities for collaboration and knowledge mobilization related to the scope of this funding opportunity.  

Application process   

This anticipatory funding opportunity will involve a two-stage process. In the first stage, interested applicants will be required to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). The EOI stage is mandatory and will require applicants to complete an eligibility checklist and upload supporting documents. No technical proposal or concept note is required at the EOI stage. Only applicants whose EOIs are successful will be invited to submit a full technical proposal. Specific requirements for the application process, including the EOI phase, will be outlined in the anticipatory funding opportunity when it is formally announced.  

Virtual Q&A webinar

A virtual Q&A webinar will be held on Thursday, March 7, 2024, from 8:00-9:30am EST/3:00-4:30pm CAT in English with simultaneous French interpretation. 

Registration for this session is available at https://forms.microsoft.com/r/pXjzGQkLhb. Note that registration for the webinar will close on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 5:00pm EST/Thursday, March 7, 2024, at 12:00am CAT.

Once you have registered, a KUDO webinar link will be emailed to you one week before the event and again the day before the event.

Anticipated timelines  

Please be advised that these dates are approximations and subject to change.  

• Funding opportunity launch: February 26, 2024  
• Virtual Q&A webinar (Open to all): March 7, 2024
• EOI submission deadline: April 5, 2024  
• Communication of results to applicants: April 30, 2024  
• Full proposal submission deadline: June 14, 2024  
• Notice of decision: July 19, 2024  
• Funding start date: October 1, 2024  

Call for peer reviewers  

Recruitment of peer reviewers will begin immediately. The peer-review process is anticipated to take place from June 19 to July 5, 2024. An honorarium will be provided to each peer reviewer based on IDRC policies. If you are interested and available to volunteer as a peer reviewer, please contact us as soon as possible at health-CLIMAT-santé@idrc.ca.  

Contact information  

For general inquiries, please contact health-CLIMAT-santé@idrc.ca.