The ability to obtain extramural funding is a critical part of developing a successful academic career. This manuscript provides an introduction to the sources of funding, the process by which a research proposal is developed, and the process by which a research proposal is reviewed and funding. Emphasis is placed on the process of grant review is performed at the National Institutes of Health.

BACKGROUND We explored the perceptions of members of the Network for Scientific Support in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health (NetSRH) on North-South-South networking and on constraints and perspectives for South-led research. METHODS An exploratory qualitative study was conducted 18 months after the network was launched. In-depth interviews were carried out with NetSRH members (n = ...

The Regional Partnerships Program (RPP) was a program of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and six provinces - Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. CIHR and each province contributed 50% to support health research that was recommended for funding by peer review but fell below the CIHR budgetary cut-off for fundi...

The first set of evidence-based benchmarks for medically acceptable wait times, announced in December 2005, were developed, in part, through a novel partnership between the Provincial and Territorial Ministries of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Canada's health services research community. Responding to a direct request for assistance and demanding timelines from t...

BACKGROUND There is considerable interest at present in exploring the potential of social health insurance to increase access to and affordability of health care in Africa. A number of countries are currently experimenting with different approaches. Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was passed into law in 2003 but fully implemented from late 2005. It has already reached impressive...

BACKGROUND Global environmental health has emerged as a critical topic for environmental health researchers and practitioners. Estimates of the environmental contribution of total worldwide disease burden range from 25 to 33%. OBJECTIVE We reviewed grants funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) during 2005-2007 to evaluate the costs and scientific composition...

A dvocacy can be a powerful force for change and those who work with children are the best advocates for the next generation. Drs Hawkins and Law have surveyed the pattern of research funding available for child and family health and have looked to see how this correlates with the government priorities for children set in the National Service Framework for Children and other government policy d...