Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research
Request for Applications
RFA-HD-05-025

http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HD-05-025.html

The NICHD invites applications from investigators willing to participate in a cooperative agreement with the NICHD in an ongoing multicenter international research network designed to perform randomized clinical trials of interventions to reduce the major risks to maternal, neonatal, infant, and early childhood health in the resource-poor countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The objective of this program is to contribute to the resolution of these problems by establishing a network of Research Units (paired U.S.-based and foreign centers) that will use common protocols to implement randomized clinical trials and thus contribute to the evidence-base for sound clinical, programmatic, and policy decisions. The network will establish the infrastructure necessary to initiate, implement, and evaluate randomized controlled trials in community settings among pregnant women, newborns, infants, and children to the age of three years. The overall goal of the Network is to expand scientific knowledge relevant to improving health outcomes for women and children in developing countries. Other critical goals are to: (1) develop sustainable research infrastructure and public health intervention capabilities in developing countries and (2) strengthen international collaborative research arrangements that focus on the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in pregnancy and early childhood. A key objective for the network Research Units is to design, develop, and conduct multiple simultaneous common clinical trials, as well as implementing and evaluating evidence-based health interventions and pertinent formative and translational research studies collaboratively. These studies must have strong scientific and epidemiologic basis for their use in a foreign country, and should be culturally appropriate. The primary endpoints in these studies must be associated with demonstrable improvement in important public health measures in the population under study. This network will bring the required numbers of subjects into rigorously designed common protocols and thus address pressing research questions in pregnant women and very young children more quickly and efficiently than could individual centers acting alone.

Research that is predominantly epidemiologic, such as observational or surveillance studies, will not be reviewed and will be returned to the PI as unresponsive to the RFA. Applications that only evaluate health care delivery programs or health care utilization and do not evaluate an intervention will also be considered as non-responsive and will be returned without review. The network Data Coordinating Center will assist in protocol development, data collection and management, provide statistical consultation, and logistical support. The NICHD program staff will assist the PI and the SFI of the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research (GN) to identify research topics of high priority, and to design, implement, and evaluate the impact of common protocols.

Important Dates

Contact Information

PowerPoint Presentation and Frequently Asked Questions

Please note: