The Social Science Research Council’s Mercury Project, mobilizes social and behavioral scientists in a search for cost-effective and scalable solutions to build vaccination demand and healthier information environments.
The Mercury Project has announced a call for proposals with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Mercury Project invites proposals to evaluate the causal impacts of online or offline interventions designed to increase demand for vaccinations consistent with national priorities, including childhood vaccines, HPV, polio, measles, and Covid-19 vaccinations, in low- and lower-middle income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Preference will be given to projects that:
evaluate the effects of interventions on behavioral outcomes, including vaccination uptake;
evaluate interventions that are designed and delivered in collaboration with governmental, NGO, and/or corporate partners;
have demonstrated potential to be cost-effective at scale;
include researchers and research institutions located in the countries in which the study is being conducted.
Proposed projects may have a duration of up to 30 months. Primary applicant organizations must be tax-exempt organizations or the equivalent in the local context (e.g., nonprofit organizations, universities, governmental units). Proposed budgets should be appropriate to cover project costs, with indirect costs not exceeding 15% of direct costs.