This 18-month project grant is designed to support teams to deliver policy relevant research and advocacy outputs as well as provide ongoing training through mentorship and workshops. The below diagram shows how the programme is structured in order to do this.
Pre-workshop preparation
Project teams who have had their EOI approved will be assigned economic and advocacy mentors at the application development stage. Team members and mentors will use this time to develop a strong research protocol, acquire data sets and plan for communications and advocacy activities.
Training workshop 1
Once the full application is approved, project teams will be required to attend two local workshops. These workshops will provide research teams with an opportunity to work with international experts in economics of tobacco control research and advocacy. The first workshop will introduce the teams to some of the key theoretical and empirical literature in the economics of tobacco control field. The workshop will also support the research teams to conduct practical data work and to further develop the communication and advocacy plan developed in the application.
Research and advocacy development
Following the first workshop, teams will focus on conducting their research tasks and start the process of delivering their advocacy plans. Mentors will continue to support project teams by communicating with them on a monthly basis, offering advice and training where needed.
Training workshop 2
The second workshop is designed to help teams finalise the research paper and start implementation of the advocacy and communications strategy for sharing the research results. During this workshop, research teams will analyse and strengthen their research paper and gain additional practical skills in advocacy and communication training.
Research dissemination and communication
The PROACTT team is committed to supporting project teams throughout the research and advocacy element of their project. Consequently, project teams will be given a period of time to implement the communication and advocacy plans following completion of the research. This includes activities such as: submitting the research paper to an academic journal, disseminating the policy brief, presenting the research at conferences, conducting media outreach and policy-maker outreach, amongst other things.
