Establishing infrastructure hubs to power evidence synthesis in low- and middle-income countries

Wellcome is funding the establishment of global evidence infrastructure hubs to develop living evidence synthesis capabilities in key policy sectors. These hubs will support health research and policy related to Climate and Health, Infectious Disease, Mental Health, or Discovery Research. Teams must focus on one of five sectors: food systems, humanitarian assistance, economic growth, peace and effective institutions, or social protection. The funding supports 3–5 year projects with 5 awards available. This is a one-off call; the scheme is now closed. What you get • £1.5 to £1.9 million in funding • 3–5 year project duration • Support for development of living evidence synthesis infrastructure • Access to ESIC collective impact approach and existing infrastructure • Capacity sharing among synthesis producers and evidence intermediaries How to apply 1. Assemble a team of 4–8 applicants including a lead applicant based in a low- or middle-income country 2. Ensure your team has expertise in evidence synthesis, health, your chosen policy sector, and covers all required skill areas 3. Develop a research proposal that creates or builds on a global evidence infrastructure hub in one of five sectors 4. Connect your proposal to at least one of Wellcome's strategic priorities: Climate and Health, Mental Health, Infectious Disease, or Discovery Research 5. Plan how your hub will develop sector-specific living evidence synthesis infrastructure including taxonomy, evidence maps, AI-enabled syntheses, and data repositories 6. Design a co-production and testing plan involving diverse stakeholders (producers, users, policymakers, citizens) 7. Outline how you will apply the ESIC collective impact approach and contribute to ESIC systems 8. Describe your commitment to open science principles and FAIR data standards 9. Establish collaboration agreements between organisations if multi-organisational 10. Submit your final application through your administering organisation to Wellcome

• Lead applicant must be based in a low- or middle-income country (except mainland China) • Lead applicant must have demonstrated expertise in evidence synthesis production, use and dissemination in their chosen sector • Lead applicant must have experience leading collaborative, large-scale research projects • Lead applicant must hold a permanent, open-ended, or long-term rolling contract for the duration of the award, not conditional on receiving this grant • Lead applicant with less than 3 years remaining on their contract must have secured their next position with a letter of support • Administering organisation must be based in a low- or middle-income country (except mainland China) • Administering organisation must be a higher education institution, research institute, healthcare organisation, or not-for-profit research organisation • Team must include 4–8 applicants (including lead applicant) • Team must include at least one applicant with significant demonstrated health expertise • Team must include at least one applicant with significant demonstrated expertise in the chosen policy sector • Team must include either a lead applicant or coapplicants based in each country where research will take place • Team must include expertise across evidence producers, evidence methodologists, evidence intermediaries, technologists, and decision makers • Coapplicants can be based anywhere in the world except mainland China • Coapplicants can be at any career stage and come from any relevant discipline • Coapplicants must be essential to project delivery and make a significant contribution • Coapplicants must have a guarantee of space from their organisation for the duration of their commitment • All applicants must be based at organisations that can sign up to Wellcome's grant conditions • Cannot apply if already an applicant on two applications for this call • Cannot apply if you already hold the maximum number of Wellcome awards • Cannot apply if you are a member of the ESIC Steering Group • Cannot apply if you intend to transfer funds into mainland China • Cannot demonstrate sufficient capacity if already committed to other projects