devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
Health systems strengthening through person-centred care: development of a feasible and acceptable theory-based workforce approach to improve quality. What is the problem we want to address?  Serious illness has major effects on both the patient and family. In low and middle income countries these can be physical (such as pain and their symptoms) psychological, social (with additional stressors on income, children's school fees, stigma) and spiritual. This can affect both the wellbeing of the patient and family and their ability to access and stay in care. Health systems must address more than just the disease- they must become more "person centred". Person-centred care means that the health system is organised to meet the needs of the individual in ways that respond to their preferences, values and beliefs, offering dignity and respect. Being person-centred is seen to be a way to ensure that care services are high quality. By improving the health system through the workforce (the health care staff) the information it holds (on the individual's needs and preferences) and the way things are delivered, we can make care more person-centred.  What will we do?  In this study, we want to do some of the important initial work to inform a larger study to improve person-centredness. We will use our partnership across the UK, Zimbabwe and Uganda to find out what best person-centred care looks like from the view of patients and families facing serious illness, and very importantly from those who would be responsible for delivering (health care professionals). We will use this new information to work with health care teams to develop a strategy that is acceptable to patients and staff that can be put into practice in these countries as examples of health systems strengthening. We will also look at the best way to measure person centredness, so that when we conduct a larger study we have an accurate way to knowing if we have achieved our goals.  What will be the outputs? The World Health Organisation has a strategy to improve person-centredness of care for all- this study will provide a practical way to deliver this from an African perspective. We will also deliver an adapted way to measure the experience of care from the patient & family perspective. Our proposed strategy will be led by the views of patients, families and health professionals- making it more likely to achieve success. We are working with health organisations in the community and with Governments to make sure that we can achieve better care through stronger health systems. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Zika award PE supplement Wellcome Trust/MRC Zika public engagement supplement funds award in collaboration with researchers from Columbia and Ecuador. Investigating the ecology and behaviour of potential Zika mosquito vectors. Informing communities about the risks of Zika and oth The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Definition and induction of broadly protective responses against HIV-1 Despite remarkable progress achieved in decreasing HIV transmission and AIDS-related deaths in the last decade due to development of over 30 antiretroviral drugs, HIV continues to spread in a virtually uncontrolled manner. An effective HIV vaccine remains one of the priorities of HIV/AIDS research and will always be the best solution and likely key to any strategy for halting the AIDS epidemic. The biggest challenge in developing such a vaccine is the enormous HIV variability, which dwarfs that of any other virus except hepatitis C virus. However, all parts of HIV cannot easily change; to remain alive, HIV has to keep some smaller regions of its proteins more or less constant to maintain function. Our vaccine strategy takes advantage of this and focuses the body defenses on these conserved parts of HIV, its Achilles heel. Because conserved regions are common to most of the global HIV variants, the vaccine, if successful, could be used in Africa, Asia, Europe, America and Australia: it would be universal. The 1st generation conserved-region vaccine was very safe and induced strong immune responses in adult volunteers in the UK and Africa. In 2014, the pharmaceutical company GSK acquired a small biotech company, which developed one of the benign viruses we used for vaccine delivery, and unilaterally decided that we could no longer use the jointly owned vaccine in high risk people. Thus we needed to switch to an alternative vaccine virus and this provided an opportunity to also substantially improve the 1st generation vaccine.  These modifications are based on our experience from human vaccine testing and other developments in the HIV vaccine field over the last 10 years since its original design. Thus, the 2nd generation vaccine was born, using a new vaccine virus (ChAdOx1) owned by Oxford University and combining conserved regions with computer-designed proteins (mosaics), which significantly increase the vaccine match to global HIV variants. (Note that even the highly conserved regions are still somewhat variable.) Vaccines should match circulating HIVs as much as possible to stop them efficiently. The 2nd generation vaccines have been constructed, shown to induce strong immune responses in animal models and are now bound for testing in human volunteers. The requested funds will allow to us see how well the 2nd generation vaccine works in trying to get rid of HIV from already infected individuals and for larger scale testing in HIV-1 negative healthy volunteers in Africa. The latter study will aim first evidence that the vaccine can stop HIV from infecting healthy people. The funding will also allow clinical testing of the vaccine enabling further improvements including some new aimed at keeping ahead of HIV. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Confidence in Global Mental Health Research Early adversity is known to be associated with later mental health in young people. However, the nature of the early adversities experienced by young people differs considerably across the world, and much research to date has focused on data from high income countries. Here we propose to develop a portfolio of projects across five partner countries spanning three major global regions, to address research questions of direct relevant to those countries and regions, and build research capacity in those countries to ensure that the projects and partnership we help to establish can be sustained beyond the lifetime of this award. The research questions identified include understanding the impact of early adversity on suicide and suicidal ideation, exploring the role of socioeconomic adversity of psychological and psychiatric outomes, and investigating the effects of HIV/AIDS on mental health in young people. We expect this list to grow as the project develops and partnerships are established. Ultimately, we hope to identify risk factors that we can then develop interventions to target, in order to reduce the global burden of mental illness The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Mycotoxin exposure, intestinal inflammation and childhood stunting in India Childhood stunting is recognised as 'one of the most significant impediments to human development' by the World Health Assembly and its aim to reduce global stunting rates by 40% by 2025 is now deemed unachievable. When growth is impaired in children at an early age, later development of cognitive capacity is also impacted and children are thought not to be able to reach their full potential. The first 1000 days of a child's life are crucial to determining the development in later life. Hence it is imperative that the multiple factors contributing to childhood stunting are identified, their interrelation understood and their route cause treated. Undernutrition is an obvious risk factor for childhood stunting, but simple nutritional interventions have failed to solve the problem. Multiple dietary and environmental risk factors are likely to contribute, and in this study we aim to unpick these complex links. The environment a child grows up in regarding access to clean water and basic sanitation as well as access to nutritious and safe food are likely to contribute to the healthy functioning of the child's digestive tract which will facilitate the utilisation of foods for the growth and development of the child. Hence the proposed project aims to follow children from birth up to two years of age and from two to five years of age and link multiple measures of child growth, health status and intestinal function with dietary intakes and exposure food contaminants. The study will be conducted in rural areas of southern India where stunting is prevalent. This study will identify the main contributors to stunting in children and will provide the necessary information to guide future intervention programmes aimed at improving the lives of children in affected areas and hence addressing the WHO childhood development targets. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
CVR Coronavirus COVID-19 Supplement Additional funding in response to the covid-19 outbreak COVID-19 The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Understanding the mechanistic links between nutrition, skeletal muscle and exercise and type 2 diabetic phenotypes in older Indians. Diabetes is a global epidemic posing immense public health challenges across the world, but particularly in the growing populations of the Indian sub-continent.  In India alone the number of people with this disease is  over 65 million the annual cost of this disease is now enormous.  It is thus already a major health and health-care issue and one which is continuing to grow with the changing demographic towards that of an older population. It is in the older population where the biggest changes and challenges are occurring.   Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disease typically characterized by insulin resistance and caused primarily by a combination of high energy intake and low energy expenditure.  Thus individuals typically are overweight (have a high body mass index) and have low levels of physical activity.  In Indians's there is a second population of individuals who have a similar metabolic condition, but are not overweight - termed "metabolically obese".  Here, there appears to be fat accumulation in areas not typically associated with adipose deposition.  One of these areas is in skeletal muscle. Muscle plays a vital role in metabolic health.  It is the biggest store and biggest user of glucose in the body, providing a clear link to physical inactivity.  This project seeks to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning these two different types of diabetes in India.  It will do this by identifying the the skeletal muscle metabolic /lipid characteristics of Indians over 55 years who represent the two different metabolic phenotypes (as well as healthy controls) and how this is related to beta cell function and insulin sensitivity, body composition, cardio-respiratory fitness and muscle function.   It will compare the metabolic (metabolomic) and mitochondrial phenotype (respiratory function, proteome, transcriptome) in skeletal muscle in terms of Indians exhibiting the two different metabolic types.   It will seek to establish differences in lipid accumulation and cellular phenotypes in muscle-derived cells (myoblasts and fibroblasts) studied in culture (outside the body) obtained from the two different diabetic phenotypes and determine if this relates to  altered mitochondrial function.   It will then compare  the above with similar measures made on 2nd/3rd generation Indians living in the UK.   Finally, the project will undertake a longitudinal  to investigate the effects of an intervention programme, which uses targeted nutritional supplementation combined with both aerobic and strength training exercise to improve mitochondrial, muscle size and metabolic health in the different Indian diabetic phenotypes described above. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Using spatial statistics and genomics to develop epidemiologically relevant definitions of insecticide resistance in African Malaria Vectors In the last 15 years 260 million clinical cases of malaria have been prevented in Sub Saharan Africa, overwhelmingly through the use of insecticides that target the mosquito vector. Insecticide resistance is therefore a major threat to the sustained control of malaria. Whole genome sequencing of malaria mosquitoes has the power to revolutionise our understanding of the evolution of insecticide resistance; allowing us to design new insecticides and to develop strategies that delay the onset of resistance. However genomic technologies will only reach their full potential with improved sampling design and when extensive individual and population level metadata (collection location, infection/ disease state etc) accompany each sequenced sample. For the problem of insecticide resistance in the major malaria vector Anopheles gambiae a deep understanding of the biology lies with SSA scientists whilst the skills to sequence and analyse the data are held by centres in the North. This foundation proposal is designed to draw together these two groups with support from a world-leading spatial statistics group around the key issue of insecticide resistance evolution. Our vision is to further develop the programme to a Pan-African level, eventually devolving leadership to our SSA partners who will have the skills and experience to sustain the network. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Assessing treatment with miltefosine as an intervention strategy for visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil Leishmaniasis is a severe disease of humans and one of the world's most neglected diseases, primarily affecting the poor in developing countries.  350 million people are at risk of contracting the disease and it has severe costs in both health and economic terms and drains resources that could be used to promote growth of developing nations. There is no effective vaccine against the disease and chemotherapy is the prime means for reducing the leishmaniasis burden. Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe form of leishmaniasis with 6,000 cases recorded in Brazil each year; it is caused by Leishmania infantum and transmitted by sandflies.  Unfortunately the drugs available to treat VL have many limitations and new drugs, or new ways of using currently licensed drugs are desperately needed.  One such drug is miltefosine, which has been used successfully to treat VL in India, but which was not so successful in a clinical trial in Brazil in 2006.    Our recent research suggests that a specific section of the L. infantum genome (termed the MSL) is lost in some Brazilian strains of the parasite making them less susceptible to the drug miltefosine.  The aim of our foundation project is to determine how prevalent the MSL is in the population of parasites that are found in Brazil.  To do this we will validate a genetic diagnostic test using PCR, as well as sequence the genomes of L. chagasi parasites isolated from patients in the State of Piaui in Brazil.  If the MSL is found to be present often, then a new clinical trial could be run, where leishmaniasis patients with parasites containing the MSL would be treated with miltefosine, whilst those leishmaniasis patients with parasites that do not contain the MSL would be treated using current drugs.  We will genetically manipulate the MSL genes in Leishmania genes to find out why the MSL confers sensitivity to miltefosine. We shall also investigate why the MSL is lost in L. infantum, by testing if a natural product found in local Brazilian trees causes selection of parasites whilst in the sandfly vector.    Overall, we expect the outcome from this study to be a greatly improved understanding of how the environment in which the parasite lives influences its susceptibility to drugs and the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Investigating the determinants of health worker performance in Senegal Training, motivating and retaining professional health workers is crucial for the improvement of health outcomes, especially in low and middle-income countries where poor health worker performance has been recognised as one of the key obstacles to achieving better health outcomes. To improve staff motivation and performance, many donors and governments have recently supported the introduction of Performance-Based Financing (PBF) mechanisms, which link part of the health workers' remuneration to performance targets. While promising results have shown that these programmes can improve utilisation of health services and some health outcomes, it is still unclear what specific effects they have on the motivation and behaviours of health workers. Yet it is key to understand better how PBF works for health workers, and in particular whether all aspects of health workers' performance have improved or whether PBF can induce some undesired effects, e.g. a reduction in time spent with each patient.  The aim of the proposed research is to generate new knowledge and understanding of how PBF programmes work and influence health workers' performance. The proposed research takes advantage of a quasi-experimental study introduced by the World Bank in four of the poorest and most rural regions of Senegal in 2014. The project will collect a rich set of primary data in control and PBF facilities to answer several critical questions.  The research will first undertake some interviews to assess whether the extent to which what was planned in the PBF scheme is actually what is happening in practice. This will help understand exactly the nature of the intervention being implemented. The research will then undertake a large survey, collecting information in control and PBF facilities on the working environment and characteristics, behaviours and performance of health care workers. The aim is to determine the effects of PBF, by comparing the performance and behaviours of health workers with and without PBF incentives. Specifically, the survey will explore whether PBF improves the productivity, quality of care provided and attitude towards patients. The data collected will also help determine whether the time and effort spent on each patient increase and on non-incentivised activities decrease as a result of the PBF. Finally, with the information collected, we will be able to identify mechanisms through which the performance of health workers changes. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Optimising forest benefits whilst minimising impacts of emerging zoonotic diseases: co-developing an interdisciplinary tool for forests in India GCRF Foundation Infections 2016 to reduce health, welfare and livelihood impacts of zoonotic diseases on people that depend on forest ecosystems in LMICs by co-developing an interdisciplinary tool for forests in India The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.
Reducing infection risks in maternity and neonatal wards through improved environmental hygiene: an exploratory study in The Gambia. Global Maternal and Neo award to explore the role of an environmental cleaning package and its effect on some of the most vulnerable patients in African hospitals - women and newborns. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.