IDRC ANeSA Grant 2026: Up to CAD 1.2 Million for Health Research in Africa
Introduction
The Addressing Neglected Areas of Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa (ANeSA) initiative has opened Stage 1 of a two-stage funding opportunity for new Implementation Research Teams (IRTs) working on neglected sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues in sub-Saharan Africa.
The initiative is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Up to six new grants of up to CAD 1.2 million each will be awarded for projects lasting up to 36 months. From the Letter of Interest stage, up to 12 applicants will be invited to develop and submit a Full Proposal.
This is a research grant rather than an individual scholarship. IDRC provides project funding to eligible institutions and does not award the grant directly to individuals.
Benefits
The ANeSA funding opportunity offers substantial support for eligible research teams.
Successful applicants can receive:
- Up to CAD 1.2 million for an approved implementation research project.
- Funding for a project lasting up to 36 months.
- Up to CAD 50,000 Proposal Development Award for each of the up to 12 teams selected after Stage 1.
- The Proposal Development Award is provided for three months and can be used to bring team members together, strengthen capacity, conduct feasibility analysis and undertake other activities needed to prepare a strong Full Proposal.
- Participation in a virtual Proposal Development Workshop scheduled for February 9–11, 2027.
- Opportunities to interact with regional and international experts during the proposal development process.
- Support for research focused on sustainable, evidence-informed and gender-transformative interventions.
- Opportunities to strengthen research capacity within communities, civil society organisations, research organisations and implementing organisations.
- Opportunities to strengthen partnerships between researchers, communities, CSOs and decision-makers.
- Support for knowledge mobilisation, advocacy and accountability activities.
- Opportunities to contribute evidence that can influence practice, policy, service delivery, advocacy and health systems.
At least CAD 250,000 of the project budget must be allocated to CSO activities related to strengthening advocacy and accountability mechanisms. This minimum can be exceeded where justified in the application and research plan.
The budget must also include resources for the participation of all four key IRT members in two in-person all-of-ANeSA meetings to be held in sub-Saharan Africa, with locations to be determined.
Eligibility
The call is open to Implementation Research Teams led by a researcher based in sub-Saharan Africa and affiliated with an eligible institution in an eligible country.
Each team must include four key members:
- A Principal Applicant who is a sub-Saharan African researcher, either a citizen or permanent resident of a sub-Saharan African country, with a position at an institution in an eligible African country.
- One or more CSO Co-Principal Applicants who are senior members of a civil society organisation led by and/or prioritising underserved populations and active in supporting priority areas of SRHR. The CSO member must be based in the same country as the Principal Applicant’s institution. If the project covers multiple countries, there must be an eligible CSO Co-Principal Applicant from each country.
- One or more Decision-maker Co-Principal Applicants working at the relevant local, district or national level in the same country as the Principal Applicant’s institution. For multi-country research, there must be one eligible decision-maker Co-Principal Applicant from each country.
- A Canadian Co-Principal Applicant who is an independent researcher based at an eligible Canadian institution.
The Principal Applicant’s institution must:
- Be based in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Have legal corporate registration and independent legal status.
- Have the capacity to receive and administer funds.
- Be eligible to conduct or coordinate independent research in the study countries.
- Have a policy allowing researchers to publish in international academic literature without institutional restrictions.
United Nations agencies and their country offices cannot serve as Principal Applicants, and organisations headquartered outside Africa cannot serve as Principal Applicants.
Eligible CSOs can include NGOs, cooperatives, unions, civil society organisations, non-profit foundations and divisions of for-profit organisations. They must have legal registration, independent legal status, the ability to administer funds, be based in an eligible sub-Saharan African country and have a policy allowing members and partner researchers to publish without institutional restrictions.
The decision-maker Co-Principal Applicant must have the authority and responsibility to support the identification of research questions, implementation of the research where appropriate and uptake of results. If the decision-maker is not from a government entity, the team must explain how that person can support the research, help implement findings and influence relevant levels of government.
The Canadian researcher’s institution must be a Canadian postsecondary institution or affiliated institution, such as a hospital, research institute or other non-profit organisation with a health research or knowledge-translation mandate, or an Indigenous NGO in Canada with a research or knowledge-translation mandate. The institution must have legal registration in Canada, be able to contract in its own name and manage Canadian grant funds, and have a policy allowing researchers to publish internationally without institutional restrictions.
An eligible Canadian independent researcher may be a Co-Principal Applicant on up to two applications. If they are included on two applications, each application must acknowledge this.
There is no maximum number of team members. Additional people who do not meet the requirements for Principal or Co-Principal Applicant can participate as collaborators, consultants or external experts if their roles are clearly described and justified.
Eligible Countries
Principal Applicants must be affiliated with organisations based in one of these eligible sub-Saharan African countries:
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso*
- Burundi*
- Cameroon*
- Central African Republic*
- Chad*
- Congo (Brazzaville)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa)*
- Equatorial Guinea
- Ethiopia*
- Gabon*
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Ivory Coast
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali*
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mozambique*
- Namibia
- Niger*
- Nigeria*
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- South Africa
- Eswatini
- South Sudan*
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Uganda*
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe*
Countries marked with an asterisk may be subject to an additional stage of internal approval within IDRC. People based in other countries may participate in a research team, but their participation costs must be covered from other funding sources.
Research Focus
Proposed projects must address at least one of ANeSA’s five priority research areas:
- Improving access to family planning and contraceptive services.
- Expanding access to safe abortion care where legally permitted and post-abortion care (APAC).
- Upholding SRHR rights and access to services for adolescents.
- Preventing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and improving services for people experiencing SGBV.
- Strengthening advocacy for SRHR.
Projects must address the initiative’s objectives and integrate its core design elements.
ANeSA focuses on underserved populations including women and girls; men and boys; gender-diverse people; adolescents, particularly very young adolescents aged 10–14; older adults with caregiving responsibilities; LGBTQA+ people; people living with disabilities; refugees, migrants and internally displaced people; people affected by climate-related displacement, infections or conditions; people who use substances; people engaged in sex work; and people living with or at risk of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.
Other communities experiencing disproportionate harm, exclusion or disadvantage because of local, national or regional legal, political, religious or social conditions can also be considered. Applicants must clearly explain why their target population is underserved.
Core Design Requirements
Projects should be:
- Participatory and based on local priorities and knowledge, with underserved populations meaningfully centred.
- Capacity-strengthening focused, including strengthening communities, CSOs, research and implementing organisations.
- Evidence-informed and action-oriented, using relevant evidence and adapting it to local barriers and opportunities.
- Intersectional and gender-transformative, examining systemic inequalities, power, gender norms, roles, identities and other factors affecting SRHR.
ANeSA will not fund proposals that do not consider gender in their design.
Deadline
The deadline for submitting the Letter of Interest (LoI) is 23 August 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time
The application portal opened on 20 July 2026. Late submissions will not be considered, and all required documents must be received before the deadline.
Key Dates
- 29 June 2026: Call for Letters of Interest launched.
- 15 and 16 July 2026: Information webinars, primarily in English with French subtitles.
- 23 July 2026: Final information webinar in French only, from 9:00–10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (GMT-4); no English interpretation/subtitles.
- 23 August 2026: Letter of Interest deadline.
- 18 December 2026: Applicants notified of LoI results.
- 9–11 February 2027: Mandatory virtual Proposal Development Workshop.
- 12 February 2027: Full Proposal call launched.
- 2 May 2027: Full Proposal deadline.
- 21 July 2027: Applicants notified of funding decisions.
Attendance at an information webinar is not required to submit an application. The July 15 and 16 sessions reached capacity, while the July 23 session was offered in French only.
How to Apply
Applications are submitted through the SurveyMonkey Apply portal.
Before applying, teams should create or access their SurveyMonkey Apply account and prepare the required Letter of Interest and supporting documents.
The Letter of Interest must be typed in 12-point Arial font, single-spaced, with normal 2.54 cm margins, and every page must be numbered. It can be written in English or French. The maximum is 7,350 words in English or 8,820 words in French, excluding the abstract and annexes.
The Letter of Interest should contain:
- Applicant details: research title, research country/countries, Principal Applicant’s name, email and mailing address, CSO Co-Principal Applicant details, decision-maker details, Canadian researcher details, requested funding and project duration.
- Abstract: covering the background, problem, research question/objectives, methodology and potential impact. Maximum 350 words in English or 400 words in French.
- Rationale and context: target population, priority SRHR concerns, alignment with ANeSA objectives, priority areas, core design elements and Logic Model, plus relevant previous work, partnerships or funding. Maximum 1,000 words in English or 1,200 in French.
- Research questions and objectives: maximum 250 words in English or 300 in French.
- Implementation research methods and project plan: maximum 2,500 words in English or 3,000 in French.
- Translation and use of evidence: maximum 1,750 words in English or 2,100 in French.
- Team cohesion and capacity: maximum 1,000 words in English or 1,200 in French.
- Budget: maximum 500 words in English or 600 in French explaining the budget and allocation.
The research methods section should explain the project’s participatory, action-oriented and gender-transformative approach, intersectional analysis, partnerships, ethical considerations, risks and mitigation measures, monitoring and evaluation, and how the co-Principal Applicants contributed to the research design.
The application must also explain how evidence will be mobilised for practice, policy, advocacy and accountability, how communities and decision-makers will participate in identifying evidence needs, and how the project will work with ANeSA’s Health Policy and Research Organisations (HPROs) to translate and share evidence.
The budget must be justified against project activities and divided appropriately among the Principal Applicant, CSO Co-Principal Applicant(s), Canadian researcher and, where appropriate, decision-maker Co-Principal Applicant(s). Budgets should generally use the currency of the respective institution’s books of account, while the Canadian researcher’s budget must be in CAD.
Applications must also include:
- Signed letters of support from all organisations involved in the research project.
- Signed letters of support from relevant government ministries or other key stakeholders where appropriate.
- 250-word biographies and CVs of the Principal Applicant, all Co-Principal Applicants and other co-applicants.
- Legal registration or incorporation certificates for the Principal Applicant’s organisation and the Canadian researcher’s organisation.
- Current organisation charts for the Principal Applicant’s organisation, CSO organisation(s) and Canadian researcher’s organisation.
- A list of current external donors and their contributions to the Principal Applicant’s organisation, CSO organisation(s) and Canadian researcher’s organisation.
Selection Process
An external scientific review committee made up of international and multidisciplinary experts will assess both the Letter of Interest and Full Proposal stages.
The Stage 1 assessment is weighted as follows:
- Rationale and research design — 30%
- Gender-transformative and intersectionality considerations — 20%
- Team capacity — 20%
- Knowledge mobilisation and impact — 20%
- Appropriateness of budget — 10%
Up to 12 teams will advance from the LoI stage. Those teams must participate in the Proposal Development Workshop and will receive up to CAD 50,000 for three months of proposal development. They will then submit a Full Proposal, implementation plan, budget, timeline and a high-quality situation analysis suitable for publication by 2 May 2027.
Selected projects must also obtain required country clearances before a grant agreement can be issued. Successful applicants must sign IDRC’s Standard Grant Conditions. IDRC may cancel the process at any time or choose to award all, some or none of the available grants, subject to funding availability.
Applicants must disclose any real, apparent or potential conflict of interest. If a conflict cannot be resolved to IDRC’s satisfaction, the application may be rejected.
Scholarships Expiring Soon
Conclusion
The ANeSA Grant offers African research teams a major opportunity to develop and implement evidence-based, gender-transformative solutions to neglected SRHR challenges across sub-Saharan Africa.
Application Link
Apply through the official IDRC SurveyMonkey Apply portal:
Official funding call:
Deadline: 23 August 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
Enquiries: SRHR-SDSR@idrc.ca. IDRC asks that enquiries be submitted by 9 August 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time to receive a response before the application deadline.
