Aiming to address the health needs of women and children in the most disadvantaged populations across the world, the Medical Research Council (MRC), UK and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in collaboration with UK Department of International Development (DFID) will soon begin 'global health research programme'.

The purpose of this global health research programme is to fund global health research projects which will bring together researchers from the UK, India and low income countries. It also aims to fund work which addresses health needs of the most disadvantaged populations globally.  

The scope of the programme is research proposals that address major health needs of women and children in low resource settings, with a focus on issues relating to one or combinations of the topics such as maternal, new born and child health (including women’s and girls’ sexual health); nutrition; and infectious diseases (e.g. malaria).

The programme will fund high quality biomedical and health research with a focus on translational and implementation science of relevance to low income countries. They include development and testing of health interventions, including clinical trials (early and later phases); prevention, diagnosis, management and treatment of health problems; biomedical, nutritional, public health, behavioural, structural, community, health services and health systems interventions; operational and implementation science research to deliver health interventions, including research that leads to better knowledge and understanding of service integration; and population health sciences, clinical studies and epidemiological research which will provide data needed to conduct future interventions development work.

The MRC, DBT and the DFID have called for collaborative proposals which will require applicants based in India, low income countries (LIC) and the UK to work together in partnership within cross national teams on research projects. Proposals must include at least one institution from each of India, UK and an LIC.