Research focused on non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention among vulnerable communities in Australia and Nepal will share in almost $2.8 million in grant funding through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) scheme.
The GACD is an international network of health and medical research funding agencies that supports joint research activities on chronic NCD in low and middle-income countries and in vulnerable and Indigenous communities in high-income countries.
The 2023 GACD funding call focused on implementation research proposals with the potential to equip policymakers and practitioners with evidence-based strategies for reducing NCD risk factors associated with city[1] environments in disadvantaged populations globally.
The following two successful teams will receive NHMRC funding over a 5-year research period.
- Associate Professor Abdullah Mamun and team from the University of Queensland (UQ) will build a partnership between their multidisciplinary research team and urban Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) in Brisbane and Darwin. Through this partnership the team aims to co-develop and deliver a best-evidence behavioural change intervention program that is embedded into the ACCHS's existing service delivery model of care to prevent the emergence of NCD risks among urban Indigenous children and youth in Australia.
- Professor Amanda Thrift and team from Monash University will aim to co-design a multi-level intervention to determine what works - and in what dose, frequency, and duration - to prevent, diagnose and manage NCD risk factors in three urban cities in Nepal. Community health workers will be trained to provide lifestyle counselling and monitoring of people with NCDs, and track and refer them for appropriate care.
Projects funded today by NHMRC through the GACD support Australian researchers to foster collaborative partnerships between institutions in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries.
All the funding details announced today are available on NHMRC's outcomes of funding rounds webpage.
Quotes attributable to NHMRC CEO, Professor Steve Wesselingh:
- "GACD funding calls support implementation science to improve health outcomes on both an international and national level."
- "GACD is the only collaboration of major international research funding agencies specifically addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries, and vulnerable populations in high-income countries."
- "NHMRC is proud to be a founding member of GACD."
[1] In the context of this funding call, 'city' included urban centres, informal settlements and slums, and peri-urban areas.
