Scholarly Working Groups Submission Guidelines
Open Now: Call for Proposals
The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) is now accepting proposals for new Scholarly Working Groups (SWG). The deadline for submission is April 30th, 2025.
HGHI will provide funding of up to $20,000 through a competitive process to a limited number of working groups each award cycle. Each working group is expected to have an activity calendar that does not exceed 12 months. HGHI will provide overall project management support, administrative support for meetings or convenings, and hiring research or project assistants.
Objectives
Include one or more of the following:
- Foster inter-faculty collaboration and knowledge sharing: specifically, engaging with faculty across schools and departments, forming new relationships and partnerships, and creating innovative methods for knowledge exchange.
- Engage in agenda-setting on pressing global health issues.
- Explore or accelerate a research or policy topic in global health.
- Engage and connect with the wider global health community: through convenings, globally focused written outputs, and/or in close collaboration on the research or policy objectives.
- Advance knowledge through collaboration with new partners, especially non-traditional partnerships.
Roles and Expectations
- Faculty Lead: The faculty lead provides strategic direction and guides the development of the scope of work, work plan, and budget for the activities related to the working group. They serve as the main liaison between the working group and HGHI. They ensure that all working group members are engaged and informed of all activities related to the working group, as specified in the work plan.
- Working Group Members: Members of the working group may have different levels of engagement depending on the nature of the work described in the scope of work. Members are expected to assist in the development and/or execution of the work plan. Members should be involved in the decision-making process around changes to the scope of work and budget, or at a minimum, informed of such changes. Working group members should attend regular check-ins agreed upon in the scope of work.
Eligibility
- The Faculty Lead must be an assistant, associate, or full professor at a Harvard school, inclusive of hospital affiliates.
- The Working Group must consist of 2 or more members (not including the Faculty Lead) and must represent different disciplines. Typically, this means representation from at least two different Harvard schools. Once this initial requirement is met, other working group members can be from outside of Harvard. There is no cap on working group members.
Budget
Maximum allowable budget of $20,000. A detailed breakdown must be provided, including justification for each expenditure. Examples of allowable expenses include:
- Publication fees
- Research assistant salary support
- Focus group logistics
- Working group meeting support
- Travel and accommodation for event speakers
- Guest speaker fees (honorariums)
- Logistics for in-person events (Meals/catering, supplies, AV support, etc.)
The $20,000 award must be spent within 12 months of the award date. Specific requests for a no-cost extension will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This award could be disbursed for one or multiple activities over the award period and can be combined with other sources of funding to complement or expand work already being conducted.
Limitations of Funding
Support for faculty salary is not permitted. Travel support and conference fees for the Faculty Lead and Harvard affiliated working group members are not permitted.
Framework for Collaboration with the Institute
HGHI will provide administrative and communications support to each working group. An HGHI project coordinator will be assigned to support each working group throughout the award year. That project coordinator will communicate directly with the working group faculty lead to support the execution of the work plan and budget. Specifically, the coordinator will support the following activities:
- Schedule and support working group meetings
- Event logistics: reserve event space, arrange catering, AV, and booking travel for speakers
- Purchase items required for project implementation
- Coordinate with faculty admin staff, if necessary, to schedule sessions
Additionally, HGHI’s communications team will provide support to each working group in the following capacity:
- Support the identification of venues, catering, and AV for SWG-related events
- Generate promotional materials as needed for outward facing events
- Brainstorm around additional communication support for all SWG outputs
Submission Guidelines
- The deadline for submission is April 30th, 2025
- Please read the Application Guide before you start your application. This will allow you to review ALL application questions before submission.
- In the application, you will submit a budget, using this budget template.
Evaluation Criteria
- Relevance of the proposed topic to advancing excellence and equity in global health
- Potential for impact through clear deliverables
- Innovation of the proposed topic
- Clarity and feasibility of the project plan
- Alignment with interfaculty/interdisciplinary goals of HGHI
Past Cohorts of Scholarly Working Groups
Please see the list of past awarded Scholarly Working Groups to get an idea of the kinds of projects funded through the program.
Questions?
For any inquires or clarifications, please reach out to HGHI_Programs@harvard.edu.