Neurodevelopmental disorders in LMIC settings  - creation of a network and analysis of diagnostic abilities of tools to identify children early. Many children in low and middle income settings have mental health disorders. A large percentage of these are neurodevelopmental disorders - disorders where the brain has not grown in the right way. This includes disorders such as general developmental delay, autism, behavioural problems and motor difficulties such as cerebral palsy. We think these are more common in low and middle income settings because there are so many more infections, nutritional deficiencies or other injuries which are more likely to occur in these settings. These can occur  in the womb, during the period of birth or after birth in the first few years of life. At present we do not exactly know how common these disorders are or what causes them because we have no good tools which can definately say which children have a disorder and which do not. Most tools that are used in high income settings are culturally specific and expensive to use and are not always appropriate for workers at community level in low and middle income settings. Furthermore, up until now there have been very few professionals in many low and middle income settings who can diagnose children with these disorders so that we have been unable to do research on what tools can identify the right children.   In this study we will create the first network of professionals and researchers who are specifically interested in identifying and creating better feasible and valid tools for use in identifying children in the early years with neurodevelopmental disorders. We already have a multicentre study going on with data from a tool created in Malawi which will provide some information on what may work and what doesnt. We will hold two network meetings with researchers and co-investigators from these three sites as well as from our wider network. - one in the UK and one in Uganda. In the first one we will aim to identify already existing tools, cohorts and databases which have information about children who have been definitively diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder. We will also decide on what we need to analyse the data we already have and plan that analysis over the coming months. Our second meeting will feed back the results of this analysis and will provide an opportunity to co-write a more definitive collaborative grant to show the diagnostic utility of a tool which can be used to identify children with neurodevelopmental disorders at an early stage across countries.   Our second aim will be to conduct an analysis of data from a developmental tool - the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool - which is currently being collected in three sites in children in the community with no know difficulties as well as those who have difficulties. This study will be extended through this grant and will enable a definitive diagnosis to be made on at least 50 additional children in each of three sites in order to enable us to provide more information on the diagnostic utility of the tool across sites. We may be provided with additional databases to utilise during this analysis.  Our third aim will be to conduct a meeting with stakeholders (national networking) to gain information on what types of pathways there are at present for identifying and referring children and what stakeholders in each setting feel would be most helpful and feasible for the future. This will be fed back at our second networking meeting.   This international network, early data analysis and information on feasibility will allow us to move forward with this work and progress to creating a tool which can identify children with neurodevelopmental disorders better in the early years in order to provide better information on the causes, amount and spectrum of disorders in low and middle income settings. 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.