The Leprosy Research Initiative (LRI) is pleased to announce a call for proposals for funding commencing in 2023. LRI funds research with a focus on leprosy – including research applications combining leprosy with other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) or other diseases that share cross-cutting issues with leprosy.

Eligibility criteria:

  • The main topic of the study must fall within one of the agreed priority areas (www.leprosyresearch.org). This budget round preference will be given to research applications addressing the following topics:
    i) cost-efficient case finding strategies
    ii) development and validation of lab or field-based assays for leprosy diagnosis.
    Proposals can address these two research topics in combination or individually.
  • Research results must be directly applicable to leprosy services or to the wellbeing of persons affected by leprosy.
  • Preference will be given to proposals from or in close collaboration with institutions or organisations in endemic countries.
  • Project duration must not exceed four years (48 months).
  • There is no budget ceiling for the current call. By way of guidance: projects LRI has funded in the past years had an average annual budget of €30,000 (ranging from €10,000 to €75,000) – although in exceptional cases higher annual budgets have been accepted (with a maximum of four years).

Researchers interested to apply for funding by the LRI are invited to complete and submit a Letter of Intent (LoI), giving an outline of the intended research. The LoIs should be submitted using the LRI Grant Application portal – which can be accessed via https://leprosyresearch.flexigrant.com/. The online portal will open on December 1st, 2021.

LoIs should be submitted by January 28th, 2022 at 23:59 (Amsterdam date and time) after which the application portal will be closed. We strongly advise you to take sufficient time to enter all the required data in the system. Only applications in English will be considered.

LoIs will be screened by the LRI Steering Committee (SC). Applicants will be informed about the outcome of the LoI on March 14th 2022. If the feedback by the SC is positive, the applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal before the next deadline (May 2nd, 2022).

 

Submit Letter of Intent