Global Health Research
The NIHR is a major funder of high-quality global health research that directly addresses the diverse health needs of people in low and middle income countries (LMICs). We invest in applied health research relevant to the unmet needs of LMIC communities, health system priorities and the evolving global burden of disease.
The NIHR Global Health Research Portfolio uses UK international development funding to fund high quality applied health research and training in areas of unmet need.
We fund research in developing countries that are eligible to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the UK International Development budget. Our research is delivered through programmes that award funding to equitable partnerships between groups of researchers and institutions in LMICs and the UK. We also fund the career development of researchers at all stages and provide funding to support the careers of research support staff.
Through the wider Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Global Health Research Portfolio, we have built strategic partnerships with other global funders and international organisations.
Explore our programme
Our principles
All research activities commissioned and funded through our Global Health Research Portfolio contribute towards the UK aid commitment and must deliver direct and primary benefit to countries eligible for ODA. This supports the UK government’s commitment to ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing in the world’s poorest countries, as set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, builds on NIHR’s operating principles of impact, excellence, effectiveness, inclusion and collaboration, and strengthens research capability and training through equitable partnerships.
Impact
The research we fund is intended to deliver benefits and improve health outcomes for people in LMICs. Our Theory of Change model for the NIHR Global Health Research Portfolio outlines the pathways by which we expect our funding to deliver this impact.
We expect funded researchers to develop their own plans for how their research might deliver impact for people in LMICs, and to monitor outputs and outcomes to evaluate progress against the intended aims of their research. Their annual reporting supports us in evaluating how our funding is delivering impact and learning from the experiences of researchers.
Transparency
Transparency in international development delivers greater accountability, drives economic growth and improves the lives of people in LMICs.
DHSC and its ODA spend through NIHR were scored as ‘Very Good’ in the 2019 analysis of transparency of aid spend across the UK government, in the first assessment of its type. The score of 82.1% was noted as ‘a considerable achievement’ in the report by Publish What You Fund (.PDF) (.PDF), the global campaign for aid and development transparency.
NIHR publishes information on all its ODA-funded activities in the International Aid Transparency Initiative Standard. We also publish information about our global health research in the UK Development Tracker (DevTracker) under the DHSC, alongside the department’s other ODA activities.
Download Global Health ODA Transparency Data (xml file)
The NIHR supports the principle of open access to the outputs of research, which can offer both social and economic benefits, as well as aid the development of new research and stimulate wider economic growth of the UK economy. We require that researchers funded by our Global Health Research Portfolio publish their main study findings in a peer-reviewed, open access journal.
