Singapore Population Health Improvement Centre

​The Singapore Population HEalth ImpRovement Centre (SPHERiC) was established in August 2017 as a centralised platform to promote multi-disciplinary research, innovative solutions and catalysing shifts towards enhancements in our healthcare system. Tapping on education expertise from Singapore's first and only School of Public Health, SPHERiC also aims to augment public health research capabilities through hosting training programmes and workshops by internal and external experts.

=Core Research Capabilities= The Centre will feature core capabilities that will serve as shared resources among researchers working with the Centre, and would aggregate and provide access to resources and services that are costly or scarce in Singapore, yet necessary for population health research.

=Inaugural SPHERiC Fellowship Programme= The SPHERiC Fellowship aims to support the development of research talents in career and thought leadership in population health research. It is designed to provide funding opportunity and guidance for early career researchers and post-graduate students who require support for publication and/or conference travel, as well as resources/networks in population health research.

=TERMS OF SPHERiC FELLOWSHIP=

Each awarded fellowship will provide a funding quantum capped at S$10,000 for 1 year, for publication costs and/or conference travel. Please note: Only 1 conference travel (local/overseas) is allowed, and capped at S$6,000. The travel must align to the awardee's institution's travel policies. If conference travel is not budgeted, publication budget could be requested up to S$10,000. The duration of the fellowship award will be from 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020. The budget for publication and/or conference travel must be utilized within this period. Otherwise, the fellowship may be withdrawn.

=ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA=

Applicants are only allowed to submit one application.

Applicants must hold a primary appointment in NUHS cluster, and be salaried by a NUHS entity (e.g., NUH, NTFGH, AH, NUP, NUS YLLSoM, NUS SSHSPH, NUS FoD), or must be a post-graduate student undergoing Masters/PhD studies in NUS YLLSoM, NUS SSHSPH or NUS FoD with research focus in population health-related areas. Applicants should not have held any national grants (E.g., NMRC, A*STAR, NRF, MOE AcRF Tier II, etc.) or international grants (E.g., MRC, NIH, NHMRC, etc.) as a PI/Co-PI. =ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA=

Conference travel will be funded only if an oral/poster presentation is given on a topic relevant to population health field. Applicants must be able to complete the outcomes (i.e. publication and/or conference travel) within the award duration. =SPHERiC RESEARCH CORES=

SPHERiC provide a centralised platform with the following capabilities to support population health research in Singapore. For more info, click here.

=SPHERiC RESEARCH THEMES=

SPHERiC Fellowship is open to eligible applicants whose research work covers the breadth of disciplines relevant to its vision and mission articulated above. However, there will be strategic consideration for population health works which focus on the following priority areas:
 * Nutrition
 * Physical Activity
 * Chronic Disease Management
 * Primary Care (& Community Care)
 * Reducing Infectious Disease Spread
 * Aging and Frailty
 * Technology-enabled Healthcare

This includes research into determinants of health, and enablers (healthcare financing, human resource/ manpower strategies, care integration, role of technology and data sharing).

=EVALUATION CRITERIA=

The application will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

a. Merits & academic performance of applicant b. Relevance of work to population health and research themes identified c. Significance of work to population health research d. Feasibility to deliver the targeted outcomes of the fellowship

=REVIEW PROCEDURES AND DEADLINE=

The application will be reviewed by SPHERiC Review Committee for selection, and applicants will be notified of the outcome in July 2019. Applicants may be invited for an interview by the panel.

It is mandatory for all applications (hardcopy and softcopy) to be submitted to the RHS Planning Office (SPHERiC) by 31 May 2019. Please refer to the Inaugural SPHERiC Fellowship Guidelines.pdf for more info on submission mode and reporting requirement.

=SPHERiC Seed Funding Grants=

The Singapore Population Health Improvement Centre (SPHERiC) seed funding grants under the NMRC Centre Grant aims to support the development of population health research capabilities in Singapore. This grant is designed to support small exploratory studies that may provide preliminary data to potentially vie for bigger grants on a national level.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to engage one of the SPHERiC Cores, i.e. Population Health Analytics Core, Health Systems and Models of Care Core, and Implementation Science Core prior to their grant submission.

The duration of each of the awarded seed funding project would be for up to 2 years and funding period should not exceed the end date of the main Centre Grant (August 2021).

The funding cap for each proposal will be up to S$50,000 per project.

Successful awardees are strongly encouraged to disseminate the findings of their research projects through publications (hardcopy or electronic) in professional journals, presentations at scientific meetings/conferences and/or conducting training.

=Contact= For general enquiries, please email spheric@nuhs.edu.sg

=See also=

=References=