The LRI received 62 Letters of Intent for the 2023 budget round and 21 were selected to submit a full proposal. The Letters of Intent were reviewed by 2 members of the Steering Committee (SC). Points included in this review are whether the proposal addressed one of the LRI priority topics, the extent to which the research would add to what is known about the topic in short or medium term, whether the proposal involve researchers from leprosy endemic countries, and whether the research would make an impact on leprosy control and the lives of persons affected by leprosy. Other points taken into account are: the relevance of the objectives, the appropriateness of the study design and methods proposed, the originality of research, feasibility, the experience of applicants/collaborators, whether or not studies proposed collaboration with other organisations or institutes, and value for money. This budget round, preference was given to research applications addressing topics related to cost-efficient case finding strategies and/or the development and validation of lab or field-based assays for leprosy diagnosis ranked higher.
The LRI secretariat has communicated the outcome of the submissions via the online portal with the applicants. Applicants are recommended to check their spam/junk-mail box because we know from experience that emails from the portal sometimes do not reach the regular inbox.