New funding awarded for seven research uptake projects

We want the research we fund through our R2HC programme to have real-world impact – to improve the lives of people affected by crisis. Research uptake, the process of ensuring research users engage with research findings, is critical to achieving this impact.

This year we invited existing and previous R2HC-funded study teams to apply for dedicated funding to deliver new research uptake activities. Our Senior Research Impact Advisor, Cordelia Lonsdale, explains more about this opportunity and our thinking behind it in an accompanying blog.

We are pleased to share the seven research uptake projects that were selected for funding.

1. Funded Study: Measuring the magnitude and severity of abortion-related complications and associated factors

Uptake activities: This team aims to improve understanding of safer abortion methods and the consequences of unsafe abortion in the Central African Republic. They will conduct a workshop with journalists on the study findings to generate simplified and targeted communications for national print and radio audiences.

2. Funded Study: Simplified and optimised management of acute malnutrition in children

Uptake activities: This study found simplified nutrition protocols use significantly less ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) for similar weight gains in children. Working with the Niger government the study team will disseminate the results to increase uptake of the simplified nutrition protocols in Niger. They will create policy briefs to share the findings regionally.

3. Funded Study: Pneumococcal vaccination strategies for crisis-affected populations

Uptake activities: This team will produce short videos to raise awareness of pneumococcal infection, its transmission dynamics, and the benefits of vaccination among implementing organisation staff. The goal is to drive behaviour change within international implementing organisations and increase advocacy for (and subsequently uptake of) vaccination among communities affected by crisis.

4. Funded Study: Effects of a multi-sectoral programme on the health of adolescent girls and their children

Uptake activities: The team will engage key government and humanitarian stakeholders in Kenya through workshops, a presentation, video, and policy brief to raise awareness of the new National Adolescent Health Policy. It will encourage adoption of components of the multisectoral cash intervention, found to be effective in reducing adolescent childbearing and early marriage.

5. Funded Study: Improving the mental health of refugee men through a guided self-help intervention

Uptake activities: This team will host workshops and webinars to secure support for further research to evaluate the combined mental health and alcohol misuse intervention tested in this study. A documentary, success stories, TikTok videos, and two radio shows will also be developed to increase the uptake of the mental health intervention, Self-Help Plus, and reduce mental health stigma among South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.

6. Funded Study: Barriers and opportunities for self-managed abortion

Uptake activities: This project will create campaign materials through user-centred design workshops to improve community knowledge of self-managed abortion in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. It will strengthen local actors’ resources on comprehensive safe abortion care and create a nationwide abortion hotline.

7. Funded Study: Heat Emergency Awareness Treatment (HEAT) bundle trial

Uptake activities: This project will bring together stakeholders in Pakistan to advocate for the implementation of the HEAT bundle to strengthen the response to extreme heat at the city-level. The team will also develop a short video to educate adults living in urban areas of Pakistan on heat-related illness, improving community-preparedness.

[.slimline-cta-box][.slimline-cta_heading]Follow our progress[.slimline-cta_heading][.slimline-cta_paragraph]With these projects now underway we are looking forward to sharing more on their progress. Sign up to our newsletters to keep updated![.slimline-cta_paragraph][.slimline-cta-box]