BRIDGES

BRIDGES (Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environments and Systems) is a programme initiated by the International Diabetes Federation, and supported by an educational grant from Eli Lilly and Company. BRIDGES aims to fund translational research* projects in diabetes prevention and treatment to provide the opportunity to ‘translate’ lessons learned from clinical research to those who can benefit most: people affected by diabetes.

BRIDGES is seeking the best ideas from the global multidisciplinary community interested in diabetes in the form of Requests For Proposals (RFPs).

The BRIDGES project seeks to solicit proposals that support cost effective and sustainable interventions that can be adopted in real world settings, for the prevention and control of diabetes. Projects should be based on interventions already proven to be effective in trials to prevent and treat diabetes, to improve care of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and delay its complications. The interventions proposed should have the potential to be widely disseminated to clinical practice, individuals and communities. The scope of the funding is to help communities around the globe to identify special needs related to intervention and prevention.

*Translational research transforms currently available knowledge into useful measures for everyday clinical and public health practice. Translation research aims to assess implementation of standards of care, understand the barriers to their implementation, and intervene throughout all levels of health care delivery and public health to improve quality of care and health outcomes, including quality of life. (from Narayan et al. “Diabetes Translation Research: Where Are We and Where Do We Want To Be?” in Ann Intern Med, 2004; 140:958-963).