About R4D
About Research4Development
This research portal provides up-to-date information on DFID’s current research portfolio. DFID’s Research Funding Framework 2005-2007, published in 2004, sets out the priorities for DFID-funded research. The research portal also provides information about the research activities prior to 2005 in Rural Livelihoods, Health, Social Sciences, Education, and Infrastructure and Urban Development.The research portal provides access to
- Latest research news and activities
- Associated success stories and case studies
- Projects and Programme information across all the sectors
- Publications
- Syntheses
- Current Research Topics giving more information about specific subjects and DFID research and provides links to research websites.
In May 2007 DFID announced that CABI and CIMRC had been mandated to continue to develop and maintain R4D. Over the next three years R4D will help position DFID’s research programme within the global research-for-development knowledge pool. R4D will become a key internal knowledge management tool for DFID, as well as acting as a comprehensive repository for partners, and a leading knowledge resource for communication of research in development.
We welcome your comments about this website; please use the Feedback Form provided.
About DFID and the Central Research Department
The overall framework of DFID developmental policy is set out in the 1997 White Paper 'Eliminating World Poverty: A challenge for the 21st Century', and expanded upon by the 2000 White Paper 'Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor'. More information about DFID is available at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/.
New science, technologies and ideas are crucial for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, but global research investments are insufficient to match needs and do not focus on the priorities of the poor. Many technological and policy innovations require an international scale of research effort.
DFID’s Central Research Department (CRD) commissions research to help fill this gap, aiming to ensure tangible outcomes on the livelihoods of the poor. We also seek to influence the international and UK research agendas, putting poverty reduction and the needs of the poor at the forefront of global research efforts.
The Department manages long-term research initiatives that cut across individual countries or regions, and only funds activities if there are clear opportunities and mechanisms for the research to have a significant impact on poverty.
About the Projects and Programmes Database
The searchable database currently contains around 5000 projects from the mid 1990s onwards and around 18,000 documents. It provides project information, including data on the organisations and countries involved. The database can be searched by free text, keywords or on internationally recognised subject categories.
Research News
The Research News page features news stories about DFID research activities. Search news content using the Site Search. News content is also available as a feed. For more DFID news, see the DFID web site.About DFID Research - Current Research Topics
The Research Topics are the broad categories within which DFID currently funds research. This section explains the relevance of these topics to development and outlines the DFID Central Research Department's work in these areas, including descriptions of current and recently completed research.
Ten themed pages draw together details of current research and highlights the latest news, projects and documents added to the site in each category. The updates are also available as feeds.
About DFID Research - Thematic Summaries
The Thematic summaries are a series of specially commissioned documents on cross-cutting issues in DFID's research programmes. These summaries present the findings and recommendations from the programmes and are available as PDFs.
Search Research Database - Site Search
Use the Site Search to find news, case studies, research topics, projects, programmes and documents by searching on titles and page text.
For comprehensive searches of projects, programmes and documents, which also searches a hidden content index, use the Search Research Database - Projects and Documents pages.
The site search results page also gives the option to search R4D using Google and to limit this search to particular document types including pdfs.
Search Research Database - Documents
On the Documents page you can list documents produced from DFID research.
Click on a Research Topic, e.g. "Sustainable Agriculture" to view all related documents. You can also list documents by main themes, e.g. "Aquaculture and Fish Genetics". To refine your search further, use the Advanced option. For help on advanced searching, or how to filter search results to only display particular document types see the Projects section below.
Search Research Database - Projects
Click on a Research Topic, e.g. "Sustainable Agriculture" to view all projects where this is the main topic. You can also list projects by main themes, e.g. "Aquaculture and Fish Genetics". For all information on a theme, use the Advanced option.The default setting lists both current and completed projects, but does not list document records. You can alter these settings to search (i) either completed or current projects, (ii) both projects and documents records and (iii) only documents records.
Search Research Database - Advanced Search
In addition to project/document and project status settings, the advanced screen allows you to search combinations of key record fields:
Title - search for words in project/document titles
Region/Country - search for research conducted in specific areas
DFID Programme - look for research from specific Programmes
Organisations - search for work by specific organisations
Project/Publication Date - define the project start date and document publication year
Word Search/Project Code - allows you to search in the following fields:
For Projects: Project Title, Project Objectives, Project Background, Project Conclusions, Intended Outputs, Actual Outputs, Publications, General Notes, Other Dissemination, MIS Code, R Number, Keywords
And for Documents: Document Title, Summary, Citation, Geographic Area and Keywords.
The results of any search for documents can be further refined by filtering for particular types or categories of output, for example you may want to filter to show only 'technical reports' (a document type) or only show 'popular' (a document category) documents such as newsletters. These Document Types and Document Categories are displayed in a panel at the top of the Search Results page.
Use the RSS Feed Searches pages to create your own "themed" RSS Feeds from our Project database. The Feed Searches are intended to provide you with the flexibility to create feeds specific to your particular research interest.
Many RSS feeds are also available for R4D categorised by Research Theme, Country or News (and also various mixtures of all 3!). For example, News, and Case Studies.
Please see our Subscribe to R4D page for further information and to view the full range of Feeds, Email Alerts and Newsletters available.
Search Research Database - Country
You can search for projects and/or documents by Country or Region. Use the Advanced screen (see above) to search for countries/regions in combination with other key searchable fields.
Search Research Database - Research Contacts
On the Research Contacts screen, searching for organisations by name/acronym and/or country will allow you to view organisation contact information and details of their related projects.
External Search
The External Search page provides guidance on searching for information about DFID-funded research in external websites and databases.
Case Studies
The Case Studies section describes how DFID research activities are making a difference - stories told by people whose lives have been changed, and insights from researchers. Search the content of Case Studies using the the Site Search. Case study content is also available as a feed.
For more DFID Case Studies, see the DFID web site.
For a general user guide to using R4D see here.
About CIMRC
The Research4Development research portal is managed and hosted on behalf of DFID by CIMRC. CIMRC is a consortium led by CAB International to develop R4D and promote the communication and dissemination activities of DFID's Central Research Department. The CIMRC Consortium are:
- CAB International
- EUFORIC
- CommsConsult