The ASEAN-UK Health Security Partnership (HSP) is a major new 5-year programme supporting ASEAN Member States and Timor-Leste and their partners to strengthen health security, build resilient health systems, and address the impacts of climate change on health across the region.

• Access up to £1.5 million for multi-country projects, or up to £400,000 for country-specific initiatives.
• Peer Exchange Awards of up to £75,000 for short-term, cross-border knowledge sharing and collaboration.
• Access Technical Assistance to strengthen your work.

Who can apply?

• Applicants and consortium leads from the following groups:
  Autonomous government institutions with operational, technical, or academic functions (not core ministry budgets)
• Civil society organisations, NGOs, INGOs, and academic institutions working with or supporting
• ASEAN Member States
• Multi-actor consortia may apply for funds (with a lead grantee designated).

Unfortunately, ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN Centres are not eligible for funding this round. Please contact us for more information at enquiries.HSP@fhi360uk.com.

In which health areas does ASEAN-UK HSP work?
We are looking for projects that work in the following health priorities:

• Communicable Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Zoonoses
• Public Health Emergency Preparedness & Response
• Antimicrobial Resistance
• Environmental Health and Climate-Health Risk
• Human Resources for Health
• Digital Health and Health Information Systems
• Food Safety

What can be funded under ASEAN-UK HSP?
Successful applications will address one or more of the following themes:

• Address communicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, pandemic preparedness, disaster health management, health impacts of climate health and food safety.
• Build capacity, share knowledge, and support cross-sectoral collaboration.
• Strengthen universal health coverage, migrant health, pharmaceutical development, human resources for health, and digital health.

What are available types of funding and their duration?

• Multi-country grants (24-36 months)
• Country grants (18-24 months)
• Peer exchange awards (up to 12 months)
• Non-competed grants (up to 36 months)

Please check our programme factsheet in the Resource Section for detailed information.

How can I apply for funding under ASEAN-UK HSP?

1. Register for Information Session using the link above.
2. Attend the Information Session and submit an Expression of Interest online.
3. Qualifying applicants will be invited to proceed and will receive application packs.
4. Develop your proposal in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
5. Submit application through an online portal.
6. Your proposal will be assessed by technical and financial experts, with final endorsement by HSP’s Joint Programme Steering Committee.

Government agencies may be eligible to apply for funding under the ASEAN-UK Health Security Partnership programme if they meet specific criteria for autonomous government entities. Most important: HSP cannot provide direct Government-to-Government bilateral financial aid. Therefore it is important for government entities to understand the requirements below:

Eligibility criteria
The programme recognizes as eligible:

• Public entities established by law or government decree within ASEAN member states.
• Agencies with a clear mandate from national government to independently coordinate health security, public health, or multisectoral activities.
• Institutions empowered to manage their own budgets or revenues and directly receive, administer, and report on external funding.
• Bodies with explicit legal standing and statutory ability to carry out grant-funded actions aligned with programme priorities.

Examples of eligible applicants 
Eligible agencies include:

• National public health institutes
• National public laboratories
• Multisectoral coordination mechanisms or steering committees legally established within ASEAN member countries
• National centre for disease control
• National training facilities or public health universities 

How to confirm eligibility
To confirm eligibility:

• Check for establishment by law/government decree and independent fund management capability.
• Ensure legal authority to receive and utilize external grants for public health/multisectoral coordination.
• Look for descriptors such as “autonomous public entity” and “statutorily mandated to coordinate health security.”

What would make my agency ineligible?
An agency would be ineligible if:

Civil society organisations/INGOs based in the US, UK or similar counties are eligible to lead multi-country grant proposals, including headquarter entities. Some considerations on these include:

• Your organisation should have the ability to operate in the targeted countries.
• This should include local registration or other relevant legal statuses.
• You should be able to rationalise the value you bring to the consortium against the cost.
• As a rule, HSP will prioritise civil society organisations/INGOs with localisation efforts to reduce support and overhead costs that are going back to the “home” country.

At the very least, HQ-ed applicants that are at least partially localised in the ASEAN region are preferred.

INGOs with headquarter offices may also submit consortia proposals that include their subsidiary offices as sub-grantees provided those subsidiaries have been established and registered as independent NGOs in the target countries. However, again, you should be able to rationalise the value you bring to the consortium against the cost and this arrangement in most cases is better suited for multi-country grant proposals.

Are UK government entities eligible to apply?
UK government entities are not eligible to apply for HSP grant funding. However, we encourage UK entities to explore HSP’s peer exchange awards as an approach to developing and/or strengthening relationships with health security actors in the ASEAN region and Timor-Leste.

As HSP is a demand-led programme, UK government entities must have an ASEAN stakeholder peer exchange partner ready to collaborate in a country where they’re already active. Applications from UK government entities for peer exchange awards will be considered as part of the competitive funding round.

ASEAN Regional Centres and Networks that work in the health and “health-adjacent” sectors such as agriculture or the environment are not eligible for competitive grants from HSP. Instead: ASEAN Centres and Networks should inquire about direct (non-competitive) funding from the HSP programme, aligned the Health Priorities of AHC 2,3, and 4. 

Please register to our website here to receive updates and announcements about future funding rounds.

The HSP Peer Exchange Platform is a flexible platform to support exchanges between peers that contribute to safer, more prepared and resilience health systems in ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste. Peer Exchange awards provide funding up to £75,000 for short term exchanges between ASEAN member states, between ASEAN member states and UK actors, or between between ASEAN member states and global South actors. These may include but are not limited to:

• Structured knowledge exchange
• Dissemination of best practices
• Technology transfer
• Cross-border collaboration
• One Health collaboration

And other approaches to exchange.

HSP also has a special interest in exchanges that are integrated into HSP’s grant funded projects – ie, to support grant delivery through aspects of project design, needs assessment, delivery, and learning.

Peer Exchange Awards may be applied for via a 2-stage process including Expression of Interest (EOI) and full Application. The EOI window for submissions is open until September 28, 2025.