Global engagement
Making an impact
TDR is committed to meaningful engagement and collaboration with the wider global health effort. This is important in order to promote and facilitate the role of research for development and to advocate for the use of high-quality evidence to inform policy. TDR is embedded in the United Nations family at the interface between research and health care delivery, with a reach from the communities we work with through to the World Health Assembly, the WHO regional offices and other TDR co-sponsors’ regional and country structures. We will leverage this unique position to engage in the broader debate across the process of health research, from priority setting through to evidence for policy-making at local, regional, national and global levels.
Shaping research priorities and systems
We will help develop research priorities that benefit underserved and vulnerable populations, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, by:
- Maintaining a governance system that brings together the disease-affected countries and the research funders for joint decision-making and complementarity in programme development.
- Engaging with relevant stakeholders, including WHO disease control programmes and other implementers, to identify demand-driven research priorities and develop research strategies through specific impact grants.
- Developing multisectoral and multidisciplinary research approaches, including research on social and other innovations in response to regional and local priorities.
- Strengthening the research system by developing in-country tools to support the financing of research and by working with all stakeholders to develop and promote best practices in research management, standard methodologies and approaches to monitoring and evaluation of impact.
- Facilitating equitable open innovation through, for example, platforms to share and analyse research data in line with the FAIR principles and research tools and open access to research literature.
- Promoting research ethics and research integrity and strengthening local capacity for community participation in ethics oversight.
- Promoting equitable research partnerships that empower research institutions in low- and middle-income countries.
TDR promotes open science
• Active member of the coalition for open access – cOAlition S
• Supports researchers on FAIR data sharing
• Produced a new WHO policy and guidance document for sharing research data
• Chairs Data Access Committees on malaria, Ebola, COVID-19
• Part of the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition
Research uptake and use
Enabling the new evidence that is generated from research projects to reach the decision-makers and the populations they serve so that changes in behaviour and policies are informed by the best available evidence. This includes integrating research within health systems by engaging key stakeholders including decision-makers early in the research process and effective communication of research findings.
We will continue to facilitate the use of evidence to inform policy at local, national, regional and global levels, including:
- Providing evidence synthesis for policy review through policy briefs, briefing notes, evidence summaries and expert reviews.
- Increasing interest and capacity among policy-makers and stakeholders to use evidence to develop policy solutions and trigger action.
- Strengthening systematic processes of collating, organizing, synthesizing and disseminating research evidence, particularly local evidence and knowledge, and the measurement of impact.
- Integrating evidence and good practices of funders, providers, implementers and other actors in global health via innovative advocacy and communications.
Addressing gender and other social determinants of health
Social determinants of health such as gender influence a person’s risks from exposure and vulnerability to disease. These influence a person’s susceptibility to different health conditions, their access to, and uptake of, health services and the health outcomes they experience. We will strengthen gender-responsive efforts in research on infectious diseases by:
- Building research capacities on intersectional gender analysis in research on infectious diseases.
- Supporting research that explores how gender dimensions intersect with other social determinants of health to improve health interventions’ impact and equity.
- Supporting research on grassroots-level social innovations that can be scaled up by communities to improve health systems and access to health care, especially for the most vulnerable.
- Mainstreaming community engagement and equitable partnerships in research and capacity strengthening.
- Facilitating collaboration and engagement with local scientists through TDR networks and partners globally.
TDR Global: A network of passionate alumni
“My 42-year affiliation with TDR has made many things possible in improving the lives of women and girls in rural parts of sub-Saharan Africa suffering from river blindness. TDR has provided funding, guidance, networking opportunities and training on social sciences and anthropology that have been instrumental throughout my career.”
– Dr Uche Amazigo, CEO, Pan-African Community Initiative on Education and Health