14. December 2020

The Kavli Trust Programme on Health Research: Call for proposals 2021

The Kavli Trust Programme on Health Research will be awarding a total of NOK 20 M in 2021 to collaborative research projects addressing selected evidence gaps in child and adolescent mental health.

The call for 2021 is now closed. Please find the call for proposals 2022 here: 

Call for proposals: Kavli Trust Programme for Health Research 2022

Background

Mental health problems in children and adolescents make up a considerable part of today’s global disease burden but funding for research addressing these problems is sparse compared to most somatic illnesses. For a variety of reasons a significant part of today’s health research is wasted and Kavli Trust is committed to limiting research waste by anchoring research funding in established and prioritized evidence gaps (as documented in updated systematic reviews).

Sign up here if you want to be notified about important events for this and the upcoming calls.

The evidence gaps

The evidence gaps were selected in three steps:

  1. The Kavli Trust Strategic Scientific Committee (SSC) identified evidence gaps by searching for systematic reviews in selected databases
  2. The Kavli Trust User Panel provided their prioritization of the evidence gaps
  3. Kavli Trust decided on how many of the top-ranked evidence gaps to include in the call.

The evidence gaps

  1. What is the effect of interventions for children who have been subjected to abuse and neglect or have experienced violence in close relationships?
  2. What is the effect of interventions on bullying and cyberbullying among children and adolescents?
  3. What is the effect of interventions to reduce loneliness in children and adolescents?
  4. What is the effect of mental health care interventions in child welfare?
  5. What is the effect of non-pharmacological treatments for children and adolescents with ADHD?
  6. What is the effect of psychological and psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder?
  7. What is the effect of psychological interventions to improve emotion regulation in adolescents?
  8. What is the effect of psychosocial interventions for school refusal?
  9. What is the effect of psychosocial interventions in adolescents exposed to mass trauma?
  10. What is the effect of school-based psychosocial interventions to promote mental health in children and adolescents?

Read more about the evidence gaps in this document.

Potential applicants are advised to read the systematic reviews carefully for more information on the research needs.

Application process

The application process will take place in two stages:

Stage 1: Pre-proposals
Eligible applicants submit short pre-proposals through our online application system.

All pre-proposals will be screened for eligibility by the administrative scientific staff and forwarded to The Kavli Trust Scientific Review Committee (SRC) for peer review. If more than 50 pre-proposals are submitted, the administrative scientific staff can do a quality screening and refuse some of them.

Stage 2: Full proposals
Approximately ten applicants will be invited to submit full proposals that will go through a final review by the SRC.

Review criteria

The SRC will review the pre-proposals and full proposals by the following three criteria:

  • Excellence
  • Impact
  • Quality and efficiency of the implementation

Read more about the review criteria in the Instructions for the Scientific Review Committee.

Dates and deadlines

  • Launch of pre-proposal form: Jan 8th / 12:00 CET
  • Pre-proposal deadline: Mar 15th / 23:59 CET
  • Invitation to final round: May 28th / 12:00 CET
  • Full proposal deadline: Aug 31th / 23:59 CET
  • Final decision: Early November 2021

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, the projects must meet all the following criteria:

  1. The research project must address one or more of the selected evidence gaps.
  2. The formal applicant has to be an university, academic institution or research institution or institute in Norway, Sweden, Finland or the United Kingdom (host institution).
  3. The principal investigator must have a formal affiliation to the host institution.
  4. The research project can not apply for less than NOK 3 M or more than NOK 10 M in total for the project period.
    • Funding from the Kavli Trust cannot be used for overhead and/or other expenses not directly related to the project.
    • The host institution must provide a considerable in-kind contribution. In the full proposal a commitment letter signed by the head of the institution, describing the nature and level of its contribution to the project must be attached.
  5.  The maximum project duration is six years.
  6.  The research project must commit to user involvement by including two named user representatives as members of the research group.
  7.  The proposal and the attachments have to be written in English.
  8.  The host institution must accept the following demands if the proposal is granted:
    • The agreement is regulated by Norwegian law.
    • All payments will be made in NOK and the host institution bears the risk associated with varying exchange rates.
    • All studies must be pre-registered, either in EUCTR, ClinicalTrials.gov or OSF.io.
    • Submittal of annual reports including an audited accounting report, done by an independent accountant or auditor.
    • Publications must be in accordance with the ICMJE recommendations and the CONSORT statement.
    • Unrestricted open access to the published output of research is a requirement.

Registration and pre-proposal form

Registration and the pre-proposal will open on January 8th 2021 at 12.00 CET.

You can register at this site page address (will not open until January 8th 2021).

Please remember to sign up to our mailing list. This is our primary channel for communication with potential applicants.