Current Research Topics - Health and the Poor

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Health

There are still major barriers to achieving the health MDGs. But the burden of ill health is also changing rapidly, and non-communicable diseases are an increasing threat to the majority of the world’s population. International funding for health research is growing.

The Research Strategy 2008-2013 will continue to target our health research investments to speed up progress towards the health MDGs. Our current and new research programmes look at three interlinked health research themes:

Health Theme 1 – Research to make health programmes more effective e.g. fund more research to tackle the growing threat of non-communicable diseases.

Health Theme 2 – Health Systems e.g. collect and share information about the best ways to fund health systems.

Health Theme 3 – Developing drugs and vaccines for priority diseases and getting them to poor people e.g. increase our funding to Product Development Partnerships and fund more diverse research projects.

In future, we will use our knowledge of health systems to make sure that more poor people have more opportunities to use both new and existing medicines and health technologies.

See the working paper on Better Health which informed the Research Strategy 2008-2013.

The timing of research competitions and calls for proposals can be found in the Implementation Timetable.

Our current DFID health research programmes on non-communicable diseases, communicable disease, health systems and child health remain unaffected. These were guided by the Research Funding Framework 2005-2007 and are still very relevant in the new research strategy.

• Research Programme Consortia (see below)
• Multifunded research
• Product Development Partnerships

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Research Programme Consortia (RPC) Contracts Awarded: Health

Theme 1 - Health systems, economics and financing
HD105: Consortium For Research On Equity And Health Systems (CREHS)
HD106: Future Health Systems: Making Health Systems Work for the Poor.

Theme 2 - Communicable diseases: vulnerability, risk and poverty
HD205: Team for Applied Research to Generate Effective Tools and Strategies -TARGETS Consortium
HD206 Communicable Diseases: Vulnerability, Risk and Poverty (COMDIS).

Theme 3 - Reproductive health and HIV
HD3: Research and capacity building in reproductive and sexual health and HIV/AIDS in Developing Countries.

Theme 4 - Sexual reproductive health and rights
HD4: Realising Rights: improving sexual and reproductive health for poor and vulnerable populations.

Theme 5 - Maternal, neonatal and child health
HD5: Achieving MDGs 4 and 5: Strategic research to develop the evidence base for policy for mother and infant care at facility and community level.

Theme 6 - Mental health
HD6: Mental health policy development and implementation in Africa: breaking the cycle of mental ill-health and poverty.

Theme 7 – HIV and AIDS
HD11: Evidence for Action: An International Research Consortium to Maximise Benefits & Equity of HIV Treatment & Care Systems.
HD12: Social Context of HIV and AIDS (Addressing the Balance of Burden on AIDS – ABBA)

Theme 8 - Systematic Reviews
HD7: Effective Health Care Research Programme Consortium (EHCRPC)

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HEALTH KNOWLEDGE PROGRAMMES (1999-2005)

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Research Programmes

• Effective Health Care Alliance
• Health Economics and Financing
• Health Systems Development
• HIV Disease, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections
• HIV/AIDS
• Improving Perinatal Care to Reduce Infant and Child Mortality in Poor Communities
• Malaria
• Opportunities and Choices
• Reducing the Dangers of Pregnancy and Maternal Mortality in Poor Societies
• Safe Passages to Adulthood
• Sexual and Reproductive Health: Policy and Practice
• Tuberculosis

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