- The UKRI GCRF Collective Programme is an investment of £147 Million designed to impact global health, education, sustainable cities, food systems, conflict and resilience.
- Environmental disasters, education for children living through conflict and malnutrition are just some of the global challenges being tackled.
- Diverse global partnerships bring together a wide range of researchers and experts from across the UK and developing countries to generate innovative solutions to these challenges.
Environmental disasters, education for children living through conflict and malnutrition are just some of the global challenges being tackled by 141 new international development research projects being announced by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The awards, which form UKRI’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Collective Programme bring together a wide range of researchers and experts from across the UK and developing countries to generate innovative solutions to intractable development issues and contribute to enabling healthier and safer lives, sustainable development and prosperity for all.
The UKRI GCRF Collective Programme, is an investment of £147 Million across 18 calls designed to enhance the overall impact across UKRI’s six strategic GCRF Challenge portfolios in global health, education, sustainable cities, food systems, conflict and resilience. Research across these is contributing to realising the ambitions of the UK Government’s aid strategy and progressing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Professor Andrew Thompson, UKRI’s International Champion, said:
“UKRI is proud to announce this initiative celebrating the spirit of international collaboration in research and innovation. The pandemic has irrefutably demonstrated that we are part of a global community and must work together to tackle global crises.
“This exciting Programme brings together diverse expertise from across the globe, ensuring that the voices of those most impacted are empowered to drive sustainable solutions for those most in need.
“Working in partnership with developing nations, the UK’s research and innovation system has a crucial role to play in finding innovative solutions to interlinked issues such as issues such as environmental disasters, extreme poverty and food security. These international development research projects announced today are essential to finding these solutions.”
Research projects across the Collective Programme include:
- Improving preparedness and planning for the mountain hazard and risk chain in Nepal including earthquakes and monsoon rainfall as well as complex social, political and economic transformations, all within a hazardous yet densely populated landscape.
- Creating sustainable energy systems across Latin America by generating inclusive knowledge and governance to address energy vulnerability and energy systems resilience.
- Reducing urban poverty in South Asia by working with community activists and policy makers to develop context-sensitive solutions to the problems poor communities encounter in accessing key infrastructural services.
- Addressing poor nutrition and designing a structure that supports children and their mothers eating foods that support their health and development in South Africa
- Exploring all aspects of plastic use, from the composition of plastics that are imported across Africa to the slum communities who make a livelihood from selling and cleaning discarded plastics to enable an integrated circular economy that uses and reuses waste products to deliver economic benefits.
- Bringing together two existing projects, The REfugees in Africa ClusTer (REACT) project will inform health care provision for refugees across East Africa. Working with ministries of health and academic institutions across nine African countries, this GCRF Cluster project will combine the expertise of two existing GCRF projects to feed into policy decisions and ultimately improve health care provision for refugees across East Africa.
Edward Kataika, Director of Health Programmes, East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community, Tanzania, explains:
“GCRF has helped to bring research closer to policymakers’ needs, around our common aim of improving population health. The GCRF Clusters, such as REACT, help to further this by finding synergies across existing projects and generating knowledge in new and important areas”
This new programme is part of the GCRF, a £1.5 billion fund, announced by the UK Government in 2015, designed to stimulate research on the challenges faced by developing countries. GCRF forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment.
Media Enquiries:
Corinne Mosese, UKRI Senior Media and Communications Manager
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The 18 calls which make up the GCRF Collective Programme are:
Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure
- GCRF (Re)thinking the off-grid city: Human infrastructure interactions in the context of urban crisis and urban change
- GCRF Sustainable Energy and International Development Beyond Technology
Education
- GCRF Education as a Driver of Sustainable Development Network Plus
- GCRF Education as a Driver of Sustainable Development
- GCRF Early Child Education
- GCRF Education in Conflict and Crisis
Food Systems
- GCRF Cultures, behaviours and histories of agriculture, food and nutrition
- GCRF A combined Food Systems approach to developing interventions to address the Double Burden of Malnutrition
Global Health
- GCRF Health and Context
Resilience to Environmental Shocks and Change
- Multi-hazards and Systemic Risks
- Equitable Resilience: Ensuring Resilience enhances the Sustainable Development Goals
Security Protracted Conflict, Refugees and Forced Displacement
- Development-based approaches to Protracted Displacement
- Preventing Conflict, Building Sustainable and Inclusive Peace
- Protection in Contexts of Conflict and Displacement
Calls that cut across the portfolios
- GCRF Challenge Clusters
- GCRF Gender and Intersectionality Network Plus
- GCRF Global Engagement Networks
- GCRF Climate Change
About UK Research and Innovation
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is the largest public funder of research and innovation in the UK, with a budget of over £8bn. It is composed of seven disciplinary research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.
We operate across the whole country and work with our many partners in higher education, research organisations businesses, government, and charities.
Our vision is for an outstanding research and innovation system in the UK that gives everyone the opportunity to contribute and to benefit, enriching lives locally, nationally and internationally.
Our mission is to convene, catalyse and invest in close collaboration with others to build a thriving, inclusive research and innovation system that connects discovery to prosperity and public good.
Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)
The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research and innovation that addresses the global issues faced by developing countries. It is a £1.5bn Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy fund and part of the UK Government’s Official Development Assistance commitment. For more information visit. www.newton-gcrf.org