The Nestlé Foundation Research Grants for Researchers from Low-and Middle-Income Countries

Deadline: 10 January 2015

The Nestlé Foundation for the Study of Problems of Nutrition in the World invites grant applications from departments or institutes from universities, hospitals and other institutions of higher education in low- or lower middle-income countries for research grants. The research grant aims  to provide financial assistance for innovative original research projects of nutritional and health relevance to developing countries with a good potential for long term capacity building component as well as a high impact for long term implementation.

The results of the research projects should ideally provide a basis for implementation and action which will lead to sustainable effects in the studied populations as generally applicable to the population at large. These research should also enable institution strengthening and capacity building in a sustainable manner in the host country and further cooperation and collaboration between Institutions in developed and developing countries.

Types of Research Grants

Training Grants – up to USD20,000 for small research project such as a MSc or PhD thesis project or another training endeavor.

Pilot Grants – up to USD20,000 for pilot research that has a high potential to lead to a subsequent full research project grant.

Full Grants (Small & Large) – up to USD50,000 for small research projects & up to USD100,000 per year for maximum 3 years for full grant applications.

Research Topics: Human nutrition research issues dealing with -

1. Maternal and child nutrition, including breastfeeding and complementary feeding.
2. Macro- and micronutrient deficiencies and imbalances.
3. Interactions between infection and nutrition.
4. Nutrition education and health promotion.

Projects that do not receive funding

1. Low public health relevance
2. Doubtful sustainability
3. Lacking transfer of scientific, technical and educational knowledge/capacity-building component
4. Large budget projects (exceeding US$100,000 per year)
5. Nutrition surveys or surveillance studies
6. Research and food policy, food production and food technology
7. In vitro and/or animal experiments
8. Obesity and related diseases

Eligibility Criteria to apply for Nestlé Foundation Research Grants

• Applicants can be departments or institutes from universities, hospitals other institutions of higher education.
• Applicants must belong to low-or middle-income countries.
• Joint applications from more than one institution (especially South-South) are encouraged.
• Projects involving North-South collaborations are also considered if following criteria are fulfilled-
  1. The Principal Investigator is from the South and the proposal has relevance to nutritional problems of the South.
  2. The majority of the budget is earmarked for the South.
  3. Demonstration on the completion of the project of institution and capacity building in a sustainable manner in the South.
• Application needs to demonstrate a training and human resource and capacity building component for the developing world.
• There should be key role of graduate students or young investigators in the project. S/he should be either a Principal Investigator (PI) or the Co-PI.
• Established investigators if apply, should address innovative and exceptionally well justified research questions in developing countries.
• Applications from individuals who are non-affiliated researchers and not attached to research or academic institutions can be considered only in very special cases.
• All submitted grant projects must be accompanied by the ethical approval for the study by all involved institutions.

How to apply?

• Interested applicants should first submit a letter or intent with brief description of project they plan to undertake along with estimated budget.
• All submissions should be made electronically by e-mail using a MS Word File (doc).
• If the Foundation finds the project compatible to its funding policy, applicants will receive an invitation to submit full grant proposal.
• The full grant application should not exceed 20–25 pages A4 (US Legal) format.

Application Sections

1. Introduction
2. Research Plan
3. Curriculum Vitae
4. Budget Appendix

For more information, please visit Nestlé Foundation Research Grants.