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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GACD (Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases Secretariat)

Teaser

Summary

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) brings together leading health research funding agencies of key countries to coordinate research activities addressing on a global scale the prevention and treatment of chronic, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory diseases, cancer and mental health. The GACD has so far coordinated research programmes focused on the areas of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and mental health, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries as well as vulnerable populations in high-income countries.
The specific objectives of the GACD Secretariat were the following: 1) Coordinate among the GACD members the next chronic disease research programme and the process for the joint call for applications, and 2) coordinate among GACD members and participating research teams the joint activities of the research programmes.

Work performed

Work Package 1
The GACD Secretariat organised biannual Board meetings, including in Ottawa, London, Tokyo and Washington DC. In addition, it supported the work and decision-making of the Board in between meetings, including by organising two annual Board teleconferences and by preparing documentation. The Board discussed and agreed GACD research priorities, including the topic of the fourth call (mental health). Regular monthly Management Committee calls and an annual face to face meeting were planned and implemented. The call text for the mental health call was developed and published.
To coordinate the calls for applications on lung diseases and mental health, the Secretariat updated and disseminated information from all agencies, including published call text, timelines and applicant information. The Secretariat maintained a website which makes this information available publicly, and set up a separate submission portal for the receipt of mental health call applications. Standard operating procedures for the joint peer review have been developed, and the joint peer review of lung diseases applications has been completed.
The Secretariat also published the formal announcement of all diabetes research grants receiving funding and organised a launch event for the announcement of the lung diseases research grants.

Work Package 2
The annual scientific meeting, i.e. the meeting of all funded research teams, took place in Mexico City in November 2015 and in Sydney in October 2016. The 2015 meeting marked the formal start of the newly funded Diabetes Programme, whilst the 2016 included a number of the newly funded lung diseases researchers for the first time. Results from the annual meeting have been disseminated among the research network as well as publicly.
The Secretariat facilitated a number of working groups, particularly in the development of joint papers. Seven joint publications from GACD researchers have already been published, with a number of additional papers in development.
The annual report 2014/15 and 2015/16 were published and disseminated online and to relevant parties in hard copy.

Work package 3
The Secretariat engaged in the required continuous reporting of deliverables and milestones.
The annual financial audit was completed in 2015 and 2016 and submitted to the GACD Board.

Final results

The Board has agreed on the fourth and fifth GACD research call. Decisions made by the Board with regard to joint research priorities are expected to have a fundamental value for future orientation of public health research policy. The GACD includes some of the worldâ€™s largest public research funding agencies as members, whose joint decision making has an impact on the distribution and allocation of research funds. The GACD has recently welcomed additional members from Japan, Brazil and Argentina which further widens the potential impact. Collaboration and knowledge sharing also impact models and processes of research funding within each agency, an example of which is the coordination of peer reviews and the learnings individual agencies can take from this. Specifically, the implementation of a common submission portal has been a major innovation for GACD member agencies.
In addition, investing in GACD research programmes is leading to the sharing of best practices in addressing chronic diseases and the expansion of the field of implementation science. This can be seen in the joint publications and research outputs. The application of generated knowledge and best practices among researchers, funding agencies and policymakers is ultimately expected to lead to a reduction on the burden of chronic diseases.