Building FETP Capacity in Non-communicable Disease Detection through Mini-Grants
The header photo was submitted by mini-grantee Lazile Bougouyou Franck Olivier of Cote d'Ivoire for his project, "Trend of road traffic injuries in Abidjan, 2011-2015."
Project Objective
The NCD mini-grant project aims to strengthen country surveillance systems for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by awarding small grants (mini-grants) to individual FETP trainees and/or graduates to complete non-research studies of surveillance systems related to the following NCD areas:
- Air pollution
- Birth defects
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Emergency response
- Environmental health
- Heart disease and stroke prevention
- Injury
- Maternal and perinatal health
- Nutrition
- Physical activity and obesity
- Tobacco
How It Works
Since 2010, TEPHINET has administered more than 100 mini-grants. Mini-grants are small (usually around 5,000 USD) grants awarded through a competitive application process to the FETP trainee or graduate, who serves as principal investigator on a project designed to analyze existing health surveillance data in a particular NCD topic area within his or her country. TEPHINET opens calls for mini-grant letters of intent and proposals directly through our website. Check the Opportunities section for active calls.
TEPHINET coordinates the mini-grant application and selection process in close partnership with CDC subject matter experts, who serve as mini-grant application reviewers and as mentors to the selected grantees. Grantees also receive local mentorship from their local field epidemiology training programs over the course of their work. Grantees will work directly with the mini-grant administrator within TEPHINET to finalize their contract, receiving their funding, and submit their project deliverables.
The end result of a grantee's data collection and analysis should be a final report summarizing their findings. This report may be published in academic journals and/or used as the basis for improving NCD surveillance systems in-country.
Results
In 2016, TEPHINET conducted a survey of all mini-grant recipients from 2010 through 2016 to learn more about the results and impact of their work. Key insights from this survey included the following:
- 65 percent of respondents indicated that they had provided training to other data collectors as part of their project work.
- Nearly 78 percent indicated that they had hired field workers to assist in data collection and had collectively hired more than 400 individuals.
- 33 percent had published the results of their projects at the time of the survey.
- 36 percent had presented their findings at a conference at the time of the survey.
- 59 percent said that their projects had led directly to corrective actions or systemic improvements such as changes in policy, surveillance methods, or other positive outcomes.
