GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Proposals should address all of the following activities:

• Select one or more city/ies in which the research will be conducted. Applicants must justify why a particular context is considered a city.
• Select one or more evidence-based interventions known to reduce NCD risk factor(s) associated with city environments. Applicants should justify the choice of intervention(s) and provide evidence of the intervention’s effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility, and potential for long-term health and other impacts. Applicants may also wish to consider implementation research focusing on the WHO Best Buys, though this is not a requirement.
• Adapt these intervention(s) for selected study population(s) based in one or more city/ies, taking into account the unique social, political, economic, and cultural context(s). Applicants should justify why these adaptations will not compromise the known effectiveness of the selected intervention(s).
• Provide a research plan for investigating how to promote the uptake and/or scale-up of the intervention(s) in the selected study population(s), using validated implementation research frameworks.
• Specifically address issues of equitable implementation to ensure interventions reach the populations that need them the most.
• Have an appropriate strategy for measuring both implementation research outcomes and real-world effectiveness outcomes and indicators (related to NCD prevention and, if feasible, planetary health and/or non-health sectors).
• Demonstrate a commitment to stakeholder engagement.
• Demonstrate a commitment to planetary health in that the proposed intervention, implementation strategies and research practices minimise the consortium’s ecological footprint.
• Provide a sustainability plan or describe a pathway to sustain the proposed intervention after the funding ends.

The proposed interventions of focus may fall under one or both of the following themes:

Theme 1: Behavioural change interventions: These interventions comprise of innovative approaches to helping people live in cities maintain good physical and mental health despite infrastructural, environmental, climate, and social challenges.  Behavioural interventions might include, but are not limited to, programmes and policies that target alcohol and tobacco use, sleep, exercise promotion, healthful nutrition (e.g. in school canteens), addressing the psychosocial impacts of climate change and climate change related disasters, and reducing exposure to environmental contaminants.

Theme 2: Interventions that focus on modifying the built environment: These interventions focus on modifying the built environment to improve its health-promoting potential. Proposals should aim to inform urban design such that it reduces NCD risks. For proposals that focus on modifying the built environment, applicants should demonstrate that the intervention will be able to withstand expected impacts from climate and/or improve resilience to the health impacts of climate change in city environments.