Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Grant Call – COVID-19

Overview

This Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Grant (TCMRG) – COVID-19 grant call seeks to harness TCM principles and scientific research methodologies and expertise to validate the use of TCM as an adjuvant therapy, for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of mild and moderate for COVID-19 patients in Singapore.

Objectives

The TCMRG – COVID-19 serves the following objectives:

1)    To establish the safety and possible herb-drug interaction when using TCM as an adjuvant therapy for mild to moderate COVID-19 patients;

2)    To help healthcare professionals understand which TCM therapies for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients have been proven to be effective;

3)    To assist policy makers in incorporating clinically proven TCM therapy for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients in Singapore.

Assessment Criteria

The proposals will be assessed based on the following criteria:

a)    Relevance and potential impact of the work on the understanding, and the use of TCM as an adjuvant therapy for the management of mild and moderate COVID-19 patients,

b)    Scientific excellence merit, feasibility and implementability of study in local context,

c)     Track record and overall technical expertise of PI and team.

Grant Details

Projects will be awarded up to a period of 12 months at a cap per project of $300,000 (inclusive of indirect costs, capped at 10% of eligible funding amount).

Overseeing Committee

The TCM Research Advisory Committee (TRAC) will oversee the TCMRG – COVID-19 and make the final decision for grant award. TRAC comprises local and foreign researchers and TCM practitioners.

Eligibility Criteria

Project Teams applying for the TCMRG – COVID-19 should fulfil the following criteria:

a)    Principal Investigators (PIs) to be from local public healthcare or academic institutions (i.e. Clusters/ Restructured Hospitals & Institutions, Universities, HPB, or HSA¹).
¹As VWOs are not “public institutions”, they would not be eligible to apply. TCM VWOs and private TCM schools are however, strongly encouraged to collaborate with public institutions on relevant projects, so long as the PIs are from the public institutions.

b)    However, TCM practitioners fully registered with the Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board, with more than 10 years of clinical experience, but not from our public healthcare or academic institutions, may lead in project teams as PIs for studies that do not involve clinical trials and/or laboratory services e.g. observational or case description type studies.

c)     All applications must be endorsed by the institutional heads (CEO or equivalent. Applications from TCMP PIs, not from our public healthcare/academic institutions, must be endorsed by, CEO or equivalent of TCM VWOs, with IPC status), to ensure institutional support, ownership, and oversight for the projects.

d)    The PIs, together with their Project Teams, are responsible for the planning, direction, and execution of their proposed projects.

e)    Projects which are currently already receiving support from other sources of funding will not be eligible for TCMRG – COVID-19 funding, so that there is no double funding.

Application

TCMRG – COVID-19 is open from 20 April 2020 to 1 May 2020.

Please submit 2 soft copies of your application (in word doc format and PDF format) to MOH_TRAC_Secretariat@moh.gov.sg,

cc ng_jin_ju@moh.gov.sg and tan_kok_hsien@moh.gov.sg, latest by 1 May 2020, 5pm;

and 1  signed hard copy by 8 May 2020, addressed to:

Manager (TCM Branch)

Primary and Community Care Division

College of Medicine Building

16 College Road

Singapore 169854

Click here for the TCMRG - COVID-19 Application Form and TCMRG - COVID-19 Application Guide.

Please also refer to the following documents for policies governing the TCMRG – COVID-19:

TCMRG - COVID-19 Guidelines

TCMRG - COVID-19 Terms & Conditions

Relevant Forms

TCMRG – COVID-19 Claim Form

TCMRG – COVID-19 Grant Variation Form

TCMRG – COVID-19 Progress Report

TCMRG – COVID-19 Final Report

The list of research projects awarded the TCMRG – COVID-19 Grant Call can be found in the table below: 

Enquiries

For more information or enquiries, kindly contact us at MOH_TRAC_Secretariat@moh.gov.sg or contact the following officers.