Call for Proposals: Partnerships for stronger Knowledge Systems in Africa (KNOSA) Deadline 26 June, 2024

The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research is seeking proposals from partnerships between policy and research institutions based in East Africa, with a focus on strengthening institutional capacities and formalizing policy–research linkages and networks, to effectively support and sustain national knowledge systems that drive successful policy development and implementation.

The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (the Alliance) has a long-standing interest in directly supporting institutions to be increasingly effective in their contexts in applying their own abilities to generate, synthesizes and commission research evidence. In line with its new strategic plan, the Alliance aims for impact in strengthening institutional capacities to conduct research and generate evidence that genuinely informs and leads to change in policy and implementation by building on its previous and current investments in institutional mentorship. This is to further advance understandings of how research evidence is used, shapes policy-maker behaviours and strengthens institutional structures. The Alliance’s present approach is called Partnerships for stronger knowledge systems in Africa (KNOSA).

Objectives

• The objectives of KNOSA are to strengthen institutional capacities to increase the effectiveness of policy and research institutions working at the national level to deploy a range of evidence generation and synthesis approaches in their own contexts to generate impact on policy and implementation. Specifically, KNOSA will build robust knowledge systems in Africa by strengthening institutional capacities and leadership to better inform national level policy-making processes and steer implementation. This will involve:
  • Establishing institutional partnerships between a set of African research and policy institutions;
  • Building research-to-policy networks across institutions;
  • Generating new knowledge and practice on institutional approaches for research evidence use and national knowledge systems, such as rapid reviews, evidence synthesis, priority-setting, evidence-informed advocacy, dialogue and engagement with media and public;
  • Improving local evidence-informed policy and practice;
  • Co-designing a suite of system-level interventions across those institutions to strengthen the use of research evidence in national policy-making processes; and
  • Increasing the scholarship on institutional capacity strengthening in LMICs by documenting and disseminating learning on capacity mechanisms for strengthening knowledge systems, both for global audiences and local practice.

Funding Information

• Three institutional partnerships will be funded up to a maximum of US$ 145 000 each. No further funding will be provided by the Alliance within or beyond the project period.
• The activities of the institutional partnership are expected to run for thirty months, from the end of 2024 to mid-2027.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for this award, the institutional partnership will demonstrate the following:
  • Partnered policy institution(s) and research institution(s), are geographically located in one eligible East African country (Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, or Zimbabwe). Proposals will only be considered from organizations that are locally owned and operated within East Africa. Subsidiaries of organizations headquartered outside of Africa will not be considered. However, subsidiaries of organizations headquartered in other African countries are eligible to apply, provided they demonstrate significant local leadership and operations within East Africa.
  • At least 50% of the named team members on the proposal should be women.

• Deadline: 26-June-2024

For more information, visit OFFICIAL LINK & APPLY.