In some countries, health research has advanced significantly. Others have been left behind, suffering from decaying or even collapsing infrastructure. Alarmingly, disparities in health research capacities may be widening. Harmonization of such diversity has been a major conference challenge. Research is a human enterprise that requires motivation, skills, career structures, and an interactive critical mass.
Infrastructure is necessary to provide an enabling environment that nurtures a research culture.
Flexible financing is required. The Commission focused on mobilizing public funds from the countries themselves supplemented by foreign development assistance. Continuing donor dependence one decade later is both troubling and clearly unsustainable. Health research for development, therefore, is a two-way street. Not only does health research advance development, but social, economic, and political developments are preconditions for health research.