Call for Grant Applications: Strategic Social, Economic & Behavioural Research, 03/01

TDR Increases its Efforts in Strategic Social, Economic and Behavioural Research

The new Steering Committee on Strategic Social, Economic and Behavioural Research (SEB) issued its first call for grant applications in October 2000. Over the next 2-3 years, SEB will focus on supporting research that increases understanding of:

* how large-scale social and economic forces affect inequality of access to treatment, prevention and information related to infectious diseases;

* the implications of globalization on the persistence, emergence and resurgence of these diseases.

Studies of this nature will require innovative research methods, involving multi-level analyses that allow for investigation of the effects of large-scale forces on local level processes and outcomes. An important aspect of the Committee's work will be to support capacity building to conduct such analyses.

Social science research in TDR: past, present and future

From the beginning, TDR has placed considerable emphasis on the social and economic aspects of tropical infectious diseases and their control. From 1979-1994, TDR supported social science research through its Steering Committee on Social and Economic Research (SER), and since 1994, applied social science research has been supported by the Intervention Development and Implementation Research team (formerly the Applied Field Research team).

In June 1999, TDR's Joint Coordinating Board (JCB) approved the creation of a new Steering Committee on Strategic Social, Economic and Behavioural Research (SEB). As mentioned in TDRnews No. 63, SEB is located within the Basic and Strategic Research team (STR) to reflect its focus on basic social, economic and behavioural research issues of trans-disease and global importance.

A Scientific Working Group (SWG) of experts from a range of social, economic and policy sciences met in Geneva in June 2000 to set the overall direction for SEB. In September, the SEB Steering Committee met for the first time, and developed a vision for the next five years and a detailed work plan for the coming two years.

The focus of SEB reflects WHO's growing interest in the complex relationship between poverty and health. On a worldwide scale, infectious and parasitic diseases disproportionately affect populations living in poverty. Social, political and economic inequalities are central to the persistence and spread of these diseases, and the performance of health systems in protecting vulnerable populations from the impact of these diseases often falls far short of potential. Over the next several years, the SEB Steering Committee will examine these issues within the context of globalisation, the changing role of the state, and the emerging role of non-state actors (the private sector, NGO's and civil society).

For further information, please contact the SEB Secretariat:

Dr Johannes Sommerfeld
SEB Secretary
Tel: +41-22-791-3954
Fax: +41-22-791-4854
mailto:sommerfeldj@who.int

-The SEB workplan and current call for grant applications can be retrieved at the TDR website: http://www.who.int/tdr/grants/workplans/seb.htm http://www.who.int/tdr/grants/grants/seb.htm

or requested, by regular mail, from the SEB secretariat.

--