Transdisciplinary Approaches to Mobility and Global Health

Funding is provided for international, transdisciplinary projects that address the connections and interdependencies between mobility and global health by bringing together partners from High-Income Countries (HICs) and Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

This call is jointly operated by the three independent private foundations Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) in Denmark, Wellcome Trust in the UK and Volkswagen Foundation in Germany. It is intended to promote multi-perspective research on how mobility and health are interlinked, how they influence the general health, various health determinants and the wellbeing of local and mobile populations; and how the effects of mobility could be addressed in a sustainable way.

The call is designed to foster research that benefits the field of Global Health by creating additional value beyond the initial funding period and supporting societal transformations through the translation of research into practice. The focus is particularly on highly original, risky, and innovative projects that address understudied and underfunded research areas with novel methods and approaches.

The call is designed to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration between social scientists and health scientists that bridges the difference between disciplines. However, it is also intended to break geographical divides through mutual learning and equity.

The thematic focus of the call includes research on health-related questions regarding the mobility of people (migrants, refugees, health tourists, (un)documented workers etc), its effects and repercussions, and various aspects of mobility of populations. Furthermore, projects on how ideas/concepts that influence Global Health move beyond borders and how they affect societies are welcome. The mobility of animals and goods, the spread of animal and vector-borne diseases and their effects on human populations may also be investigated.

Examples of suitable sub-topics include:

• Projects to inform research priorities, policies and interventions aimed at addressing access to prevention, diagnostics, and challenges of continued care for noncommunicable diseases, including mental health and infectious disease co-morbidities, among migrants for work, persons displaced due to conflict, disasters or climate change.
• Project that adopt the One Health perspective to investigate the role of mobility and international trade of goods, live animals and agricultural products for public health, while recognising the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment as well as the ethical and systemic components and adaptation strategies.

Projects should investigate, develop and assess novel methods and approaches across different disciplines to benefit research into mobility including, for example, ethical aspects, data quality, cost, feasibility and participatory opportunities. Encouraged are particularly transdisciplinary projects that include active participation and collaboration of researchers from various disciplines as well as non-academic stakeholders such as policymakers, practitioners, and community members.