Appraisal of the research grant schemes of the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean: the way forward

One way that the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) promotes the important area of health research is by providing research grants within the Region. A desk review of 2 of the EMRO-supported research grant schemes was done to assess: the selection process of the research proposals, the priority areas, country data and information on the principal investigator. The 2 schemes were: EMRO grant for Research in Priority Areas of Public Health, started in 2002, and the EMRO and Organization of Islamic Conference Standing Committee for Science and Technological Cooperation Grant for Research in Applied Biotechnology Genomics in Health, started in 2004. The paper proposes the following recommendations to enhance benefit from the grant process: create a critical mass of researchers through joint collaboration in proposals and mentoring; instigate a more rigorous process to disseminate the call for proposals more widely and effectively; and include relevant stakeholders in the identification of priority areas for research and overall monitoring of the process.