Team Grant : GACD Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cancer – (Pre-Proposal)
Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery
Deadlines
Academic Unit: Inquire with unit
Memorial Deadline: RGCS review not required for the Pre-Proposal
External Deadline: Tuesday 25th, February 2020
Description
SIRI will be offering support with application development for this opportunity. Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact Jennifer Stevens (v5js@mun.ca) early during the development process to discuss the services available to them.
This funding opportunity is part of the sixth joint research program of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD). Established in 2009, the GACD is a globally coordinated effort of 15 health research funding agencies, which supports implementation research on the prevention and management of chronic non-communicable diseases. The current GACD call will support projects that focus on implementation research for the primary and/or secondary prevention of cancer in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and/or in populations facing conditions of vulnerability in high-income countries (HICs).
Cancer is becoming one of the most important public health problems worldwide and a leading cause of premature death. In 2018, an estimated 18.1 million1 people were diagnosed with cancer and 9.6 million died from it. Predictions suggest that 30 million people will die from cancer each year by 2030, of which 75% will be in LMICs. Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) also bear a disproportionately high cancer burden, having significantly greater mortality and lower cancer survival than non-Indigenous people. In Canada, the incidence of cancer, particularly for preventable cancers, is increasing faster in Indigenous communities and survival post-diagnosis is lower relative to non-Indigenous people2,3.
One challenge to reducing this burden of cancer in populations experiencing disparities worldwide is to overcome barriers in implementation of basic cancer prevention and care strategies. Implementation of effective, evidence-based interventions has been central to cancer control in many HICs. Yet, in LMICs and other low-resource environments, such interventions are under-used or have limited impact because of implementation challenges that have yet to be identified, researched, and addressed.
The GACD defines implementation research as the study of strategies to make evidence-based interventions successful in real-world settings, with the aim of improving access to, and use of, these interventions in populations. In order to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 (‘to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one third by 2030…’)4, implementation research and healthcare efforts are needed to identify and scale-up the best strategies to prevent and control cancers in LMIC countries and among populations facing conditions of vulnerability in HICs.
As outlined in the GACD call, proposals must build on evidence-based interventions (including cost-effectiveness) for the respective population groups under defined contextual circumstances. The aim should be to adapt and scale-up the implementation of these intervention(s) in accessible, affordable and equitable ways in order to improve the prevention and early diagnosis of cancer in real-life settings. Interventions should be culturally safe5 and appropriate, meet conditions and requirements of the local health and social system context and address any other contextual factors identified as possible barriers. Particularly for projects focused on Indigenous populations, prevention interventions should be contextualized within the broader scope of cancer care such as the access to and the acceptance of comprehensive care within/by Indigenous communities. The proposed interventions should be gender-responsive.
The CIHR funding opportunity, launched under this GACD program, will support implementation research for the primary and/or secondary prevention of cancer in LMICs and/or among the Indigenous populations in Canada. Indigenous populations are broadly defined as individuals, groups and organizations, and populations who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), living and working anywhere in Canada, including urban centres.
For complete information on the challenge to be addressed, scope and expected impact of the research, please refer to the GACD call.
Additional information can be found at ResearchNet.