There are lots of different parts of the NIHR that potential applicants may wish to undertake a placement in. Each of these parts has a specific area of focus, with a wide range of facilities, expertise, and hosts a number of academics.
You can undertake a GHR SPARC placement anywhere across the NIHR; as long as there is mutual support and agreement between the applicants ‘Employing Organisation’ and ‘Placement Host Institution’. If you are wishing to undertake a placement in one of the NIHR GHR Programmes, the institution you are wishing to undertake the placement in must be listed as an ‘Official Collaborating Institution’ and be a named party in the NIHR GHR Programme’s current collaboration agreement.
Applicants are encouraged to consider the list of NIHR Global Health Research Programmes within the:
- NIHR Global Health Research Units
- NIHR Global Health Research Groups
- NIHR Global Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) Programme
- NIHR Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) Programme
- NIHR Global Research Professorships
- NIHR Global Health Research Centres
Individuals may wish to consider a placement with a researcher or research team in one of programmes’ lead institutions or any of the associated ‘Official Collaborating Institutions’ (partner institution). The list below details the countries where the partner official collaborating institutions are based. Applicants should contact the Training Leads/Programme Directors for more details on the partner institutions Please use the Find Your GHR Training Lead page to identify corresponding Training Leads/Directors in programmes of interest.
Additionally, applicants may arrange to spend their placement in a part of the UK NIHR Infrastructure/’wider NIHR’ – non-ODA funded (e.g. an NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, NIHR Applied Research Collaboration, one of the NIHR Schools etc.) Please refer to the UK NIHR SPARC: Where Can I Go?
The two ‘SPARC: Where Can I Go?’ documents detail the types of activities taking place within the NIHR GHR Programmes and UK NIHR Infrastructure (NB these are not exhaustive lists, but we hope this gives you some idea of what might be possible).
Applicants are encouraged to speak with their GHR Training Lead in the first instance, but may also wish to contact the NIHR Academy to confirm their selected Placement Host Institution is named as an ‘Official Collaborating Institution’ on the GHR Programme’s current collaboration agreement prior to submitting their application.
This document will continue to be updated as we receive information from NIHR GHR Programmes.
NIHR Global Health Research Units
The Global Health Research Units programme funds research to address locally-identified challenges in LMICs, by supporting equitable research partnerships between researchers and institutions in the UK and those in low and middle income countries (LMICs) eligible to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA).
The Global Health Research Units programme provides funding to support not only delivery of research that will improve health outcomes for people living in LMICs, but also to strengthen crucial research capability and capacity in resource-poor settings, in particular training and capacity building in both academic research and programme support functions.
Global Health Research Unit funding is awarded to partnerships that have an existing track record of delivering internationally recognised applied global health research and wish to consolidate and expand this work.
NIHR131996 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Neglected Tropical Diseases at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Phase 2)
Find out more about the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Neglected Tropical Diseases.
NIHR132027 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on the prevention and management of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Sustainable, cost-effective solutions to strengthen maternity and newborn care and reduce stillbirths and neonatal deaths in high-burden settings.
- Support for parents, families, attending health providers and communities who experience a stillbirth or neonatal death.
- Strengthening research capacity with particular (but not exclusive) emphasis on midwives and nurses.
- Mechanisms of knowledge-transfer in high-burden settings.
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Applied maternal and newborn health
- Participatory approaches including women, families and stakeholders
- Exploratory research including evidence synthesis and qualitative approaches
- Clinical trials of complex interventions
- Implementation and scale-up
- Capacity strengthening
- Community Engagement and Involvement
Partner organisations’ locations: Kenya, India, Pakistan, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia.
NIHR132826 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (RESPIRE-2)
NIHR132960 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit and Network on Diabetes and Cardiovascular disease in South Asia
NIHR133252 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Health financing for UHC in challenging times: leaving no-one behind
NIHR133307 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Genomics and enabling data for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance - University of Oxford, UK
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Pathogen surveillance enhanced through the intelligent use of whole genome sequencing (WGS)
- Delivering local, national and international data and interpretation for decision-making
- Data science, analytics and engineering and integration of these within health systems globally
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Digital epidemiology
- Pathogen surveillance
- Bacterial Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) ‘wet lab’ and Bioinformatics
- Data science, analytics and engineering
- Good Financial Grant Practice
- Train-the-trainer
Partner Organisations’ Locations: UK, Nigeria, Colombia, Philippines, India.
NIHR133364 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery: Establishing a Sustainable Network of Surgical Research
Find out more about the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery.
NIHR134530 Call 2 Unit - NIHR CLEAN-Air (Africa) Unit Clean modern energy for all. Benefiting health, society, environment and climate in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
Find out more about the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on CLEAN-Air (Africa).
NIHR134801 Call 2 Unit - NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Inequalities
NIHR Global Health Research Groups
The Global Health Research Groups programme aims to generate the scientific evidence that can improve health outcomes for people in low resource setting through improving practice and informing policy. The programme also strengthens research and research management capacity and capability to support future sustainability of research in partner countries.
Global Health Research Groups programme awards funding to specialist research groups either new to delivering applied health research globally or that wish to expand an existing partnership.
NIHR132731 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Group on Oral Health
NIHR132995 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on collaborative care for cardiometabolic disease in Africa - University of Leicester
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Collaborative care for cardiometabolic disease, including type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease
- Promotion of self-management education, upskilling of healthcare practitioners and community leaders
- Building capacity to develop future leaders in research management and expertise in Sub-Saharan Africa
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Cardiometabolic disease
- Community engagement and involvement
- Training and capacity strengthening
- Implementation science
- Clinical trial and intervention development
- Mixed methods
Partner organisations’ locations: UK, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya.
NIHR133066 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Gastrointestinal Infections: Facilitating the Introduction and Evaluation of Vaccines for Enteric Diseases in Children in Eastern and Southern sub-Saharan Africa
NIHR133128 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing
NIHR133135 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Group on Equitable Access to Quality Health Care for Injured People in Four Low or Middle Income Countries: Equi-injury
Find out more about the Equi-injury: NIHR Global Health Group on Equitable Access to Quality Health Care for Injured People in Four Low or Middle Income Countries.
NIHR133144 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Controlling Vector Borne Diseases in Emerging Agricultural Systems in Malawi
NIHR133205 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Diet and Activity - A syndemic approach to the prevention of diet- and physical activity-related NCDs
NIHR133208 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on developing strategies for hepatitis C in Ethiopia (DESTINE) - University of Dundee
Find out more about DESTINE.
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Modelling the Hepatitis C epidemic in Ethiopia
- Developing new care pathways to test for and treat Hepatitis C
- Engaging with community stakeholders
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Epidemiology
- Disease modelling
- Clinical Trials
- Hepatitis C Diagnostic Testing
- Community Engagement and Involvement
Partner Organisations’ Locations: UK, Ethiopia.
NIHR133231 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Research Group on Advancing Early Diagnosis of Cancer in Southern Africa- AWACAN-ED
NIHR133232 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group: Implementation of simple solutions to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and build research capacity in Sierra Leone
NIHR133333 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Building Partnerships for Resilience: strengthening responses to health shocks from the grassroots
NIHR133391 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Transforming Parkinson's Care in Africa (TraPCAf)
NIHR133712 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Promoting Children’s and Adolescent’s Mental Wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa
NIHR133850 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Group on Perioperative and Critical Care - University of Cape Town/South Africa
Find out more about the NIHR Global Health Group on Perioperative and Critical Care.
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Developing realistic and sustainable models of Essential Critical Care for the surgical patient
- Improving identification of critically ill patients after surgery
- Preventing and treating life-threatening perioperative maternal haemorrhage
- Building linked national digital health systems to evaluate the impact of our projects and drive improvement in patient care through international clinical audit and epidemiological research
- Community Engagement and Involvement
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Global Health
- Perioperative and Critical Care
- Mixed Methods Research
- Clinical Trials
- Epidemiology and Study Design
Partner organisations’ locations: UK, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia.
NIHR134325 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on homelessness and severe mental illness in Africa (HOPE)
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Understanding the priorities, experiences and unmet needs of people experiencing homelessness and severe mental illness in 3 countries in Africa
- Participatory development and piloting of multi-sectoral, rights-based interventions
- Larger-scale implementation and scale-up of the co-developed interventions
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Epidemiology
- Complex interventions
- Participatory action research
- Community-based interventions
- Mental health
- Community Engagement and Involvement
Partner Organisations’ Locations: UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, USA, Ghana.
NIHR134342 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on HIV-associated Fungal Infections - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes
Our Global Health Group brings together a team of leading researchers, clinical leaders, NGO partners (MSF and DNDi), and community and patient representatives, to improve the diagnosis and treatment of HIV-associated fungal infections and ensure that these improvements are made widely available to the underserved populations most commonly affected in LMICs in Africa (DRC, Mozambique, Guinea, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa), and SE Asia (Vietnam).
The multi-disciplinary research covers four HIV-associated fungal infections:
- Cryptococcal meningitis
- Talaromycosis
- Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP)
- Histoplasmosis
Collectively these infections are responsible for 250,000 deaths per year, and up to 20% of all HIV-associated mortality.
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Clinical research
- Clinical trials
- Mycology
- HIV research
- Health Economics
Partner organisations’ locations: South Africa, Botswana, Vietnam, Malawi, Switzerland, UK.
NIHR134440 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Global Health and Palliative Care (GHAP): expanding access
NIHR134482 Call 3 Group - NIHR Research Group on Patient-centred sickle cell disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (PACTS)
Find out more about PACTS.
NIHR134531 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Vaccines for vulnerable people in Africa (VAnguard) Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit / Uganda
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Investigating structural, social and biological determinants of population and community differences in vaccine impact.
- Optimising vaccine effectiveness for vulnerable communities.
- Modelling integrated strategies to inform development of future interventions to optimise vaccine impact among vulnerable populations.
- Within the three mentioned major themes are two supportive areas of interest which are:
- Empowering vulnerable communities to optimise vaccine impact for their people through a process of co-learning and co-creation between them and researchers
- Building capacity for, and a culture of, consultative, collaborative multidisciplinary vaccine research in East Africa
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Statistical analysis and modelling (LSHTM and University of Cambridge)
- Vaccine epidemiology (LSHTM and University of Cambridge)
- Immunology (UVRI, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, University of Oxford and MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit)
- Social sciences (KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme and Uganda Christian University)
- Community engagement (Uganda Christian University and KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme)
- Capacity strengthening (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme)
- Nutrition (KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme)
Partner Organisations’ Locations: UK, Kenya, Uganda.
NIHR134544 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Research Group on Improving Hypertension Control in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa (IHCoR-Africa)
NIHR134629 Call 3 Group - Global Health Research Group on Disrupting the cycle of Gendered violence & Poor Mental health among Migrants in precarious Situations (GEMMS)
NIHR134638 Call 3 Group -NIHR Global Health Research Group on sustainable care for anxiety and depression in Indonesia - University of Manchester, UK
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Primary mental health care
- Psychological interventions
- Common mental health problems
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Co-production and community engagement
- Implementation science
- Qualitative research
- Epidemiology and household survey design
- Health economics
Partner Organisations’ Locations: UK, Indonesia.
NIHR134663 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Community Food for Human Nutrition and Planetary Health in Small Islands (Global CFaH)
NIHR134694 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems - Imperial College, London, UK
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Development of new Lab-on-Chip diagnostics for infectious disease
- Co-design of new diagnostics with local communities, users and stakeholders
- Health systems analyses to determine potential use and impact of new diagnostics
- Modelling the potential of real-time data for epidemiology and disease control
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Technology innovation, design and development
- Molecular assay development
- Diagnostic evaluation
- Community engagement and involvement
- Health systems and economic analyses
- User-experience and human-computer interaction research
- Epidemiology
- Computing for health
- Mathematical modelling and artificial intelligence
Partner Organisations' Locations: Burkina Faso, Sudan, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, The Gambia, Tanzania, Zambia, UK, The Netherlands, Uganda.
NIHR134781 Call 3 Group - NIHR Global Health Research Group on Improving Quality of Maternal Healthcare in Africa
Global Health Policy and Systems Research (Global HPSR) Programme
The Global Health Policy and Systems Research (Global HPSR) programme supports high quality, appropriate and applicable research that aims to improve whole health systems and health services in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
The programme supports development of equitable partnerships between LMIC and UK researchers, who together engage stakeholders to identify and address priorities for research in health policy and health systems, and develop plans for capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing.
Global HPSR research projects are expected to underpin the WHO #HealthForAll campaign to promote universal health coverage and support meeting UN SDG 3: ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.
NIHR130812 GHPSR-C - Learning to Harness Innovation in Global Health for Quality Care (HIGH-Q)
NIHR131145 GHPSR-C - What is the cost of poor quality medicine? Estimating the prevalence, health impact and economic cost of substandard and falsified medicines in Indonesia in the age of Universal Health Coverage
NIHR131207 GHPSR-C - Research for Health System Strengthening in northern Syria (R4HSSS)
NIHR131237 GHPSR-C - IMPRESS: Innovative Management PRactices to Enhance hoSpital quality and Save lives in Malawi - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Measuring and enhancing hospital management
- Quality of care
- Neonatal healthcare
- Systems thinking
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Complex interventions and their evaluation
- Cluster RCTs
- Evaluation hospital management
- Health systems research
- Health facility data collection
- Health economics
Partner Organisation’s Location : Malawi.
NIHR131273 GHPSR-C - Controlling chronic diseases in Africa: development and evaluation of an integrated community-based management for HIV-infection, diabetes and hypertension in Tanzania and Uganda. The INTE-COMM study
NIHR Research And Innovation For Global Health Transformation (RIGHT)
The Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) programme funds applied health research for the primary and direct benefit of people in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
RIGHT aims to strengthen capacity for research and boost knowledge exchange through funding equitable partnerships between researchers in the UK and those in LMICs. The programme promotes interdisciplinary approaches to research, including, but not limited to, collaborations between clinical, health economics, statistics, qualitative and social sciences disciplines.
Call 1 - Epilepsy, Infection-related Cancers and Severe Stigmatising Skin Diseases
NIHR200132 - NIHR RIGHT Call 1 - Transforming the Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy and Buruli ulcers in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).
Find out more about Transforming the Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy and Buruli ulcers in LMICs.
NIHR200135 - NIHR RIGHT Call 1 - Empowering people with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: Intervention Programme to improve patient journey and reduce Stigma via community Education (ECLIPSE).
Find out more about Empowering people with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis.
NIHR200144 - NIHR RIGHT Call 1 - Prevention of epilepsy by reducing neonatal encephalopathy (PREVENT) study.
Call 2 - Mental Health
NIHR200817 - NIHR RIGHT Call 2 - ENHANCE: Scaling-up Care for Perinatal Depression through Technological Enhancements to the ‘Thinking Healthy Programme’.
Find out more about ENHANCE.
NIHR200824 - NIHR RIGHT Call 2 - Improving outcomes for people with psychosis in Pakistan and India enhancing the Effectiveness of Community-based care (PIECEs).
NIHR200842 - NIHR RIGHT Call 2 - SPARK: SuPporting African communities to increase the Resilience and mental health of Kids with developmental disorders and their caregivers.
NIHR200846 - NIHR RIGHT Call 2 - Transforming Access to Care for Serious Mental Disorders in Slums - the TRANSFORM Project.
NIHR200851 - NIHR RIGHT Call 2 - Evaluating the Impact of Group Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) In Lebanon and Kenya on child developmental outcomes, maternal Depression and the mother-child relationship.
Call 3 - Multiple Long Term Conditions
NIHR201708 NIHR RIGHT Call 3 - Multimorbidity-associated emergency hospital admissions: a “screen and link” strategy to improve outcomes for high-risk patients in sub-Saharan Africa - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (UK)
Find out more about the Multilink Consortium.
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes:
- Clinical medicine
- Health systems and policy
- Health economics
- Social science
- Determine prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in hospitalised patients within Malawi and Tanzania
- Understand treatment pathways
- Health economic modelling to determine where point of care tests are most beneficial within the patient journey
- Co-create a complex intervention
- Cluster randomised controlled trial in district hospitals to test the intervention
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Secondary care research
- Epidemiology
- Health economics
- Health systems
- Clinical trials
Partner organisations’ locations: UK, Malawi, Tanzania.
NIHR201773 - NIHR RIGHT Call 3 - The CONTROL (COgNitive Therapy for depRessiOn in tubercuLosis treatment) programme of research to improve outcomes for depression and TB in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
NIHR201813 - NIHR RIGHT Call 3 - Multimorbidity in children with HIV and severe acute malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
NIHR201816 - NIHR RIGHT Call 3 - Development and evaluation of a targeted, integrated, coherent and people-centred approach to the management of Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC-M) in South African primary healthcare
NIHR Global Research Professorship
The NIHR Global Research Professorship funds researchers and methodologist from all professional backgrounds to lead research and strengthen health, public health and social care research leadership at the highest academic levels. The Professorship can be in any field of applied global health, public health and care, and the NIHR particularly encourages multidisciplinary professorships addressing under-funded and/or under-researched areas which could have a significant impact on mortality and/or morbidity in LMICs.
RP-2017-08-ST2-012 - NIHR GRP Round 1 - Translational Research to Reduce Mortality from CNS Infections in Africa
RP-2017-08-ST2-008 - NIHR GRP Round 1 - Improving adult health in sub-Saharan Africa through couples-focused interventions for HIV, STIs and diabetes
NIHR300039 - NIHR GRP Round 2 - Preventing Invasive Salmonella Disease in Africa
NIHR300791 - NIHR GRP Round 3 - Developing a vaccine to prevent death from melioidosis in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in low- and middle-income countries
NIHR300808 - NIHR GRP Round 3 - Stopping mothers dying from sepsis in Africa
NIHR301621 - NIHR GRP Round 4 - The Missing Billion: Using participatory approaches to improve access to healthcare for disabled people in Uganda
NIHR301627 - NIHR GRP Round 4 - Preventing Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance in Africa
NIHR301634 - NIHR GRP Round 4 - Arresting the HIV epidemic in rural South Africa: Using innovations in intervention design and evaluation to reduce sexual transmission of HIV in adolescents and youth.
NIHR Global Health Research Centres
The Global Health Research Centres programme funds research-driven partnerships between institutions in low and middle income countries (LMICs) and in the UK, with each call focusing on areas needing coordinated, high quality research in LMICs to increase the global evidence base. The centres undertake high quality research and strengthen LMIC institutional capacity to undertake, manage and disseminate high-quality applied health research. They support career pathways for researchers, create a global cohort of experts and train researcher managers and non-academic staff.
NIHR203246 - Call 1 Centres - NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-communicable Disease Control in West Africa (Stop-NCD)
NIHR203247 - Call 1 Centres - NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-communicable Diseases and Environmental Change
NIHR203248 - Call 1 Centres - NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Improving Mental and Physical Health Together (IMPACT)- University of York
Research themes and areas of interest including cross-cutting themes
In the Centre for IMPACT, we focus on three of the four key NCDs: common mental disorders (depression and anxiety), heart conditions, and diabetes. We will evaluate approaches to prevent and treat these, targeting those most at risk, and –uniquely– giving mental health parity alongside physical health.
Areas of Expertise and Strengths for GHR SPARC placements:
- Addressing mental and physical health together as most people have co morbid mental and physical illnesses
- Our Centre is based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, countries with limited resources and affected by recent conflicts, NCDs risk crippling fragile health systems and economies
- To address NCD, we focus on the most practical, affordable solutions, including those offered to individuals and communities as well as those implemented at a population level
- "We will train researchers, particularly women scholars, to become tomorrow’s research leaders
Partner organisations’ locations: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Luxembourg, UK.
NIHR203257 - Call 1 Centres - NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Multiple Long-Term Conditions
NIHR203266 - Call 1 Centres - NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Community Management of Long-Term Conditions in Latin America