The Harvard Health Publications Division (HPP) of Harvard Medical School will work with Portuguese teams on several initiatives designed to produce educational material for: 1) the general public about health, medicine and biomedical science as well as for 2) students and professionals in the health sciences. These initiatives will be conducted through applications for competitive proposals from collaborative teams across Portuguese institutions. Funding will be available for up to 3 projects per year (15 projects over 5 years) in either of these two categories.
1. Educational material for the general public
The Harvard Medical School - Portugal Program in Translational Research and Information is soliciting applications for grants to create health information for the general public, written in Portuguese, published electronically and delivered over the Internet.
Topics of interest include all areas identified in the Portuguese National Health Plan. However, excellent proposals in any other topic will also be considered.
Outline of content proposals: Proposals of all types will be considered, but the following are reasonable guidelines for content in each of these two topic areas:
- The total content per topic would be approximately 60-80,000 words, written at the 10th grade reading level, and would address prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.
- in addition, a simplified version of the content, approximately 30,000 words, written at the 5th grade level, would be created. This simplified version would ultimately be delivered in spoken form, over the Internet, with visual material (usually single images, sometimes animations) on the screen that relate to what is being spoken. The audience for this information is people of limited literacy.
- The content will address how the health problems affect people of all ages - e.g. content on the problem in young children, teenage children, young adults, middle-aged adults, older adults, with particular emphasis on teenage children, young adults and other adults.
- The content will include newly-created illustrations (or illustrations that are in the public domain and can be used without constraints).
Additional features that will make an application attractive, because they take advantage of the capabilities of the internet, include:
- Simple animated illustrations (as simple as two-step or three-step animations);
- Quizzes the user can take to test whether they have understood the material they have read;
- Simple, interactive tools that allow a user to obtain information that is specific to someone like them (a person of a particular age, gender, past medical history, medication history, etc). If such tools are included in a proposal, and the proposal is funded, the project directors must work with UMIC/FCCN directly to build the tools.
2. Educational material for students and professionals in the health sciences
Topics of interest include all areas identified in the Portuguese National Health Plan. However, excellent proposals in any other topic will also be considered.
Outline of content proposals: Proposals of all types will be considered, but the following are reasonable guidelines for content in each of these four topic areas:
- The total content per topic would be approximately 60-80,000 words, written in English, and would address basic biology of disease, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.
- Create animations and videos as part of the content, using software provided through UMIC / FCCN
- Develop self-tests, using software provided through UMIC / FCCN
- The content should link to information for patients, created as part of this program, so that students and health professionals can learn what information is available to their patients with these diseases.
Duration of activity: Grants will be awarded for up to two years. For the 2009 call , funding is available for 3 projects.
Funding: Up to 100,000 Euros per year will be available to support each project that is chosen. Funds awarded to Harvard Medical School for the HMS-Portugal Program will cover the participation of HMS teams in each project.
Eligible applicants: Applications must come from groups associated with Portuguese Universities, Associate Laboratories, Research Centres, State Laboratories or any other public or private research institutions, including hospitals. Applications must involve participants from at least two different Portuguese institutions, working directly with faculty and staff of the Harvard Health Publications Division of Harvard Medical School. Applications from multiple institutions will be viewed particularly favorably. Successful applicants will be expected to reflect an active collaboration between teams from Portugal and Harvard, and should be consistent with the overall editorial agenda and plan approved by the Health Information Executive Committee of the Harvard Medical School - Portugal Program.
Where to apply: Applications must be submitted online through the FCT website https://concursos.fct.mctes.pt/projectos/ following the Announcement of the Call for Proposals. Information on http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/projectos/concursos/harvard/2009/informacao
Deadline for receipt of full applications: 30 October 2009. Applications must:
- Be written in English
- Be no less than 10 pages and no more than 20 pages, single spaced (font, Arial 11) plus one 5-page Appendix (as explained below)
- Include a detailed outline of the specific sub-topics (such as treatments for major depression), within the broader topic area (Mental Illness or HIV/AIDS) that will be covered, in both the higher reading level (10th grade) and lower reading level (5th grade) versions
- Specify the target audience
- Identify any interactive features that will be created, specifying in some detail what they will do
- Refer to any past experience or current responsibilities that the applicant may have with regard to writing health information for the general public
- Include one 5-page Appendix that includes 3 pages of text, in Portuguese, on a subtopic at the higher reading level and 2 pages at the lower reading level, as a sample of the content to be produced.
- Include a detailed description of the groups and people involved in Portugal and in Harvard.
Review of applications: Applications will be reviewed by a Review Committee of independent experts in the field of health information for the general public, from the United States and nations other than Portugal, organized by FCT in close collaboration with Harvard Medical School. The Committee will be chaired by Professor Anthony Komaroff and will be responsible for evaluating the merit of each proposal, and for identifyng ways in which successful applicants might work together to avoid the creation of redundant content.
Notification: Successful applicants will be notified by email after 1 December 2009.
Start of activity: Funded applications will commence after 1 January 2010.
First Progress Report: A final editorial plan and initial content produced will be delivered within 6 months after the signature of the Contract, for interim review by the Review Committee. If the Committee is concerned about the progress made by the applicants, the Committee may require another interim review in several months, and has the right to recommend that further funding be discontinued when progress has been poor.
Second Progress Report: A summary of new content produced since the First Progress Report will be delivered within 12 months after the signature of the Contract, for interim review by the Review Committee. If the Committee is concerned about the progress made by the applicants, the Committee may require another interim review in several months, and has the right to recommend that further funding be discontinued when progress has been poor.
Delivery of content produced: it is expected that the final content will be delivered no later than 24 months after the signature of the Contract.
For replies on queries related to this Call please visit our Home/News page - Answers to Questions.