Current grantee

If you are either an applicant to the R2HC programme or a current grantee, we encourage you to consider the following factors in the design and implementation of your study. Elrha has produced resources that can help support you, and we list these in each of the following sections.

We provide support through resources, events and webinars as well as individual support in terms of grant management, research impact, stakeholder engagement, communications and partnerships. We also facilitate opportunities for peer learning between R2HC research teams.

If you are looking for additional support on research impact, stakeholder engagement, communications, partnerships or ethics, please refer to the relevant sections below.

Grant management advice

R2HC provides grant management support to all our grantees throughout the study period. Your R2HC lead contact is available for you to raise concerns with and to discuss any potential changes required to your study. You should keep your contact informed of any potential changes as soon as you become aware of them.

Reporting

R2HC asks grantees to submit regular narrative and financial reports. During the study period, grantees should use the Interim Progress Report template, and once the study has concluded you should use the Final Report template. The Financial report template is embedded within the budget template. The same document should be used to report financials against the budget throughout the study period.

R2HC also requires study teams to submit an Asset Register at the outset and completion of the study.

Should you need to request an amendment to the work plan or budget, please speak you’re your study lead and complete an amendment form using the template provided.

Reports completed asset register, and any amendment requests should be sent to your R2HC lead contact via email. Reports should be submitted according to the reporting schedule outlined in your grant agreement.

We recognise that undertaking research studies in humanitarian contexts can be challenging and requires risks to be planned for, managed and mitigated where possible. Where incidents occur, we require that you report these to us. Please visit the Incident Reporting page for more information.

Risk register

We require grantees to complete a Risk Register template at the outset of the study and update and share it with us on an annual basis.

Common Operational Challenges

To support our grantees to plan for and mitigate the risks in your studies, we encourage you to review the following resources:

Safeguarding

We encourage our grantees to review this Guidance on Safeguarding in International Development Research produced by UKCDR. The guidance considers different stakeholders in all stages of the international development research process, and their specific roles and responsibilities in preventing and addressing harm. This should be considered alongside Elrha’s Incident Reporting requirements.

R2HC invests in supporting grantees to plan, deliver, monitor and evaluate research impact and uptake. This is in support of our mission to increase the use of evidence in humanitarian health response and put evidence on what works in the hands of those who can use it. Grantees have access to 1:1 support, Research Impact workshops and tools, templates and events designed to inspire and support them to engage stakeholders in research.

Research Impact Manager: Advice, mentoring and 1:1 support.

The Research Impact Manager can support you with planning stakeholder engagement communications products, events or presentations. We can also work with you to amplify the impact of your research.

R2HC aims to foster effective partnerships between researchers and operational humanitarian actors in order to deliver evidence that is relevant to humanitarian needs and knowledge gaps, and so that findings can be used and applied in a timely and direct manner. Since 2013, over 80 research-practice partnerships have been supported through our grants. R2HC has throughout this time endeavoured to learn from experience.

We aim to improve our approach to supporting partnerships and ensure that not only do they deliver quality research according to their objectives, but that the partnerships we fund are conducted in a manner which upholds best practice. Partnerships should reflect Elrha’s four partnership principles:

• Equity –Every partnership should strive to embed a culture of mutual respect and achieve a balance of power and decision-making. Partnerships should take proactive steps to overcome impediments to equity between parties. 
• Transparency – Partnerships should be formed on a basis of openness and trust.  Transparency between partners helps trust to be built and enables partners to work effectively when things go well, but also importantly when things go less well. 
• Mutual benefit – For partnerships to thrive all partners must feel the value of working together. Agreeing benefits for partners from the outset means that partnerships are more likely to stay on track and last longer. 
• Responsibility –Comprising effective and responsible delivery of the goals of a partnership. Focusing on the roles and responsibilities of partners towards each other as well as towards their shared work. 

The resources we provide are aimed at supporting our grantees to work within equitable and effective partnerships, drawing on programme learning.

Advice, mentoring and 1:1 support 

Managing or participating in a research partnership can be complex and sometimes challenging to navigate. If any member of a study team wants to discuss any aspect of a partnership, we can listen and where necessary provide support or advice. Contact c.lonsdale@elrha.org

Experience shows that conducting research in humanitarian crisis settings may exacerbate some ethical considerations compared to other contexts. Each research setting creates a complex combination of vulnerabilities which must be central to ethical reflection.

We believe that ethical issues arise at every stage of research, and that ethical discussions should not be left until the research is ready to start and ethical approval sought. We encourage reflection by and among all those involved in the design, implementation and dissemination of the research and, wherever possible, with participants and their communities. We’re currently developing guidance on engaging with people affected by humanitarian crises, but in the interim encourage you to explore resources developed by others, such as Mesh.

Working with people affected by crises

Elrha is a signatory to the Nuffield Council’s Call to Action on Research in Global Health Emergencies which advocates for a more ethical and collaborative approach to conducting research during emergencies. The Nuffield report on research in global health emergencies provides clear principles and guidance for good practice. We are in the process of gathering case examples the experience of R2HC funded studies in engaging with people affected by crisis as part of the research process.