devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
Enabling Affordable Internet Access with Dynamic Spectrum Management and Software Defined Radio This project aims to investigate how the use of dynamic spectrum access (DSA) management and geo-location database technology, combined with software defined radio (SDR) implementations may be used to enable effective and efficient wireless networks to be built at scale in developing countries in order to support affordable Internet access using the shared spectrum resource.  The project will seek to evolve DSA methods and techniques to generally improve this type of spectrum sharing service, and hence these improvements in the UK, will be fully shared and supported by our international ODA partners.   The project will be led by the University of Strathclyde's Centre for White Space Communications (CWSC), working with international ODA university partners in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana & Malawi (further engaging with partners in their countries - both industry and regulators).  There will also be support and input from a number of key industry partners including dynamic spectrum access database and cloud services partners: Nominet and Microsoft, production white space/DSP radio vendors, Adaptrum and 6Harmonics; UK SME internet service providers (ISPs) partners Cloudnet and Broadway Partners; and communication/ SDR software support from MathWorks, and FPGA hardware vendors Xilinx.  All of the relationships and partners in this proposal are already pre-existing, trusted and in some cases very long term relationships, including previous and active Strathclyde links to partners in all four African countries.  Figure 1 below illustrates the partners in this project.  CWSC and its collaborating partners have considerable expertise and experience in DSA management, and were instrumental in helping Ofcom as it progressed towards putting regulations in place for dynamic use of White Space spectrum in the TV band - regulations which went 'live' on 31st December 2015. The project will build upon previous work that has taken place in the four overseas countries, and will ultimately lead to benefits in the form of improved routes towards digital inclusion in those countries, and we anticipate followed later by 'ripple effect' to neighbouring or regional countries. 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.
Translation to policy, practice and product for low and middle income countries The award uses results from research in low and middle income countries and develops these into practical applications (research translation). Three types of research translation are being followed: - translation of research into products (e.g. producing a tool to diagnose disease); - translation into practice (e.g. developing teaching resources that museum educators can use); - translation into policy (working with governments to help them understand disease which need to be prioritised for further research).   The award will fund eight smaller translation projects in health, environment, climate change and water. These projects aim to: - Work with policy makers in the Horn of Africa on regional priorities for research into zoonotic diseases (diseases spread between humans and animals); - Develop AI-based and low cost devices for detecting diabetic eye disease (two projects); - Produce guidance for health workers to deliver community-based sociotherapy for refugees in humanitarian settings; - Produce guidance to museums on how objects produced by the public about conflict and gender equality can be used in educational activities and commercialised to allow greater visibility; - Develop a tool to identify biodiversity benefits of tree cover and plan sustainable land use; - Develop radar monitoring of coastal erosion to reduce the risk of future climate variability or sea rise; - Develop a low-cost water filtration device. 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.
LoCoMoTE: Low Cost Morphable Teleoperated Endoscope for Gastric Intestinal Tract Screening Existing technologies are unable to meet China's endoscopic gastrointestinal (GI) screening needs, due to its large, aging population, insufficient infrastructure and high incidence of GI cancers. To address this challenge, we propose a novel and low cost soft endoscope, together with high-speed wireless communications to create a way to perform regular endoscopic screening programs in China.       The soft endoscope will be able propel itself inside torturous, compliant environments, such as the human gastrointestinal tract, and dramatically reduce the pain associated with conventional endoscopes. Because of the self-propelling feature and the inherent safety of using soft material, the new endoscope can be operated by non-specialist staff with minimal training and be supervised or even controlled remotely by specialist clinicians with wireless communication. The endoscope will be operated by clinicians via a custom made haptic interface. The endoscope itself will be made to be low cost and disposable. Therefore, this will enable rural medical clinics to run regular endoscopic screening programs with the system, as it will require no additional sterilisation facilities and will be easy to learn to use.       To facilitate adoption and to provide support for rural clinicians, the endoscope will be connected to a high-speed 5G wireless that will enable haptic tele-operation. Through this, expert clinicians in large hospitals all over the country will be able to monitor and directly control screening procedures from any location. Experts will therefore be able to train rural clinicians in techniques by physically demonstrating them, support rural clinics to ensure accurate diagnosis and allow experts to perform more complex procedures remotely. Aligning well with China's strategy of starting 5G commercial applications in 2020, this approach is timely and takes advantage of the wide-spread availability of wireless internet in China and deals directly with the challenges faced by efforts to create large-scale endoscopic screening programs in the country. 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.
Food Security and Health for East Africa This "Food Security and Health for East Africa" GCRF GRTA proposal focuses on breaking the current vicious circle of poor sustenance and poor human health by tackling food security and health challenges as a single highly connected developmental issue. The context of our proposal is the interrelationship between people and their environments seen through the lenses of food security and health, with the specific objectives of:  (i) improving the availability of staple food by producing new climate resilient and disease resistant potato varieties that can be grown in East Africa;   (ii) reducing the incidence of human Schistosomiasis by using prawns (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) to disrupt the infection cycle; and  (iii) increasing diagnostic accuracy of tuberculosis (TB) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases including improving antibiotic stewardship in the treatment of these diseases. Nutrition boosts immunity making nourished people less susceptible to infection, and if infected, they have better treatment outcomes. 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.
Geothermally Sourced Combined Power and Freshwater Generation for Eastern Africa (Combi-Gen) Lack of safe and clean water is a long-standing challenges in much of Africa, and especially in Ethiopia and Kenya. Around 50 million people in Ethiopia lack access to safe water, and the country is currently suffering from its worst drought for 50 years, leaving some 18 million people in need of urgent aid. Similarly, only 41% out of the Kenyan population of ~ 47 million have access to safe water.   Despite substantial undeveloped renewable resources, both Ethiopia and Kenya are energy poor. Ethiopia has around 2 GW of electricity generation capacity, meeting only 10% of national electricity demand, and reaching only 12% of the population. Kenya, with an installed electricity capacity around only 2.2 GW, has better grid connectivity, reaching about 55% of its households, but is still plagued by frequent, lengthy outages. In both countries, geothermal energy is vastly under-utilised and represents an exciting opportunity of addressing energy challenges, alleviating poverty, and promoting economic development.   The Combi-Gen project aims to develop a novel geothermally sourced-combined power and freshwater generation technology, which promises to initiate a genuinely innovative shift in the engineering response to the twin challenges of energy shortage and water-scarcity in Ethiopia and Kenya. The research will provide a novel technology that can significantly improve the utilisation of the precious geothermal resources in Ethiopia and Kenya, and can produce both power and freshwater simultaneous to address the long-standing twin challenge of water and energy shortage in both countries and others of this kind. Once the developed Combi-Gen system is widely installed, it will contribute to sustainable development through reliable renewable energy and freshwater generation, and a reduction in poverty through promoting economic development and employment growth.   Combi-Gen tackles a number of key priorities for development identified by the GRCF that relate to challenges of health, clean energy, safe water, sustainable agriculture, and foundations for inclusive growth. The core of the project is to tackle challenges associated with 'Sustainable infrastructure development'. The geothermal focus is strategically aligned with the government energy policy priorities on developing renewable and sustainable energy to meet power demand in both countries. 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.
Patient-centric supramolecular formulations of new anti-leishmanial drugs for Indian Communities Leishmaniasis is an important 'Neglected Tropical Disease' caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. There are five clinical forms which  range from localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) to fatal visceral leishmaniasis (VL). With over 350 million people world wide considered at risk, 12 million people currently infected and an economic cost that can be estimated in terms of 2 million DALYs the health challenge is only surpassed amongst parasitic diseases by malaria and lymphatic filariasis. Consequently, the leishmaniases have been classified by the World Health Organisation as Category I: emerging or uncontrolled diseases. In particular, the spread and severity of infection is exacerbated by its status as an important co-infection of AIDS patients and the overlap in prevalence of HIV and Leishmania species.   In India, despite considerable government effort VL is still  a major health hazard in 90  regions whilst CL, not being a notifiable disease, is a neglected 'neglected disease'. The treatment of leishmanial infections is difficult with all forms requiring a long, painful and costly course of drug therapy. The challenge presented by these disease states is heightened by the fact that the few efficacious drugs available often exhibit serious, potentially fatal, side-effects. New medicines with better modes of delivery are therefore required.   In this UK-India collaborative project, that brings together chemistry, pharmaceutics, formulation science, parasitology and medical anthropology, we will address these challenges by developing novel active antileishmanial compounds with better modes of administration. We will use state-of-the-art crystallisation and formulation technologies to enable new oral and topical delivery methods for each compound. This key aspect will be directed by community engagement within endemic communities and local health care professionals to define what makes a drug acceptable to the affected populations. Significantly, to help overcome the potential for resistance to arise, the design of delivery devices that enable combination therapies in which two different drugs are dosed simultaneously will be undertaken. 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.
GCRF - Low cost technologies for safe drinking water in developing regions (SAFEWATER) At least 1.8 billion people globally use a source of drinking water that is faecally contaminated and thus likely to lead to diarrheal illness: nearly 1,000 children die each day due to water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases.   Safe drinking-water is required for all usual domestic purposes, including drinking, food preparation and personal hygiene.  Diseases related to the consumption of contaminated drinking-water place a major burden on human health. In 2015 663 million people still lacked access to an improved drinking water source, and these are mostly the poor and marginalized. Almost a quarter of those people rely on surface water which is untreated and over 90% live in rural areas. Many people are forced to rely on sources that are microbiologically unsafe, leading to a higher risk of contracting waterborne diseases, including typhoid, hepatitis A and E, polio and cholera.  This proposal aims to develop and assess low cost technologies for safe drinking water which can help address the significant socioeconomic impact of water borne diseases in developing regions.  We will establish a centre which will involve a range of different expertise collaborating with universities in Brazil and Colombia and two not-for-profit organisations from Colombia and Mexico.  The objectives are to develop low cost technologies to give clean water to the poor people in rural Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, and to develop devices which can be used to assess drinking water quality in remote regions without access to high tech laboratories.  These water technologies will be tested under real conditions with the cooperation of the rural communities.   We shall also assess any health benefits in the communities following the use of the technologies to give safe water.  The main benefit of this research will be a reduced incidence of water borne diseases in developing regions.  This will result in less illness and fewer deaths for children.  This will also lead to improved quality of life for families.  Females are normally responsible for water in the home and user-friendly, safe water systems will result in less pressure on females.  Reduced illness means that children are more able to attend school and there will be less absence from employment for adults.  If local communities can get involved in the manufacture, deployment and/or maintenance of water treatment systems, then this may lead to economic development in the communities. 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.
Bone Bricks: Cost effective modular osseointegrated prosthetics for large bone loss surgical procedures The Syrian conflict has displaced around 3 million refugees into Turkey, accounting for around 4% of its population. Turkey provides free of charge healthcare services to Syrians and as such the burden on the healthcare system is significant with 940 thousand patients treated, 780 thousand operations and 20.2million outpatient services utilised. Recently, the Turkish government announced that it has spent over £9 billion in support of Syrians living in Turkey, including health insurance, since the beginning of the crisis, and a further £3.2 billion funding is still required from the Turkish economy. This project will create Bone Bricks to assemble a customised patient specific prosthetic implant to treat large bone injuries. It proposes to build on the current treatment of external fixation but with the addition of an engineered internal prosthetic implant to improve patient outcomes, avoid painful limb lengthening and reduce recovery time. Each limb salvage requires a patient specific prosthetic to fill the bone lost from their injury. This is achieved by constructing the prosthetic implant from 3D printed modular pieces, "bone bricks". The bone bricks, made with biocompatible and biodegradable polymer-ceramic materials, will come in a pallet of shapes and sizes and fit together in a "lego like" way to form the prosthesis. The assembled prosthesis creates a hollow cage which is filled with an infection prevention paste. The prosthesis and paste will prevent infection, promote bone regeneration creating a mechanically stable bone union. This will enable limb salvage as an alternative to amputation, avoiding painful limb lengthening and improving recovery time/functional patient outcomes. The Bone Bricks project utilises will engage patients, doctors, medical device manufacturers and researchers to develop a medical implant that will be used to enable injured Syrians to avoid amputation of their limbs after they have sustained injuries during the conflict (such as blast injuries). Although our primary focus is the displaced Syrian population living in Turkey a new treatment for large bone loss would benefit Turkish and UK citizens injured in accidents e.g. falls or road traffic accidents.  Furthermore, our novel low cost solution would benefit people from the current 40 active conflicts displacing more than 13 million people in other Official Development Assistance (ODA) countries. 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.
GCRF Slavery Free Communities Network Modern slavery and human trafficking is estimated to affect more than 40 million people worldwide, yet despite widespread adoption of anti-trafficking legislation, sub-national policy responses are frequently fragmented and poorly implemented.  'Place-based' approaches to coordinating anti-slavery action, which focus on distinct geographical communities, towns and cities, offer the possibility of connecting law enforcement, governance, voluntary and faith responses to modern slavery in a more effective and coherent way.  Although examples of this type of initiative have started to emerge, models of place-based anti-slavery action have generally been developing organically and in isolation without the benefit of wider knowledge-exchange.    This proposal addresses this challenge by establishing the first global 'slavery-free cities' network.  Starting with a core group of four cities spanning four different continents, we aim to establish network infrastructure by building collaboration agreements and knowledge sharing platforms, designing tools and indices for comparison, and collating thematic reports on core aspects of the local anti-slavery response, including prevention, discovery, recovery and the maintenance of sustainable freedom.  The academics we are working with in Brazil, Nottingham, Bangkok and Maputo have expertise in labour exploitation and supply chains, child labour and forced marriage and sexual exploitation, amongst other topics, and this project will enable us to examine the value of a place-based approach to addressing these diverse and challenging manifestations of exploitation.  This will also be the first attempt to explore in a systemic way how the concept of a slavery-free community could be developed and implemented across diverse social and economic contexts.  The network will be open to further self-funding members, and outputs and virtual participation will be made widely available, through the internet  without charge.  We will use powerful connections with UNU-CPR and Delta 8.7 to connect our core network to anti-slavery practitioners and virtual communities worldwide.  We anticipate that the network will benefit policy and practice in participating cities and states through strengthening in-country inter-agency work to address slavery.  We also see huge potential for stimulating learning across different international contexts, whilst also developing knowledge and networks to inspire future research and collaboration opportunities. 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 decentralised low-cost wastewater infrastructure by managing the microbes Here we argue that decentralised and point of use water infrastructure and technologies are fundamental in delivering health and economic sustainability in rapidly growing cities of the Global South. Further we advocate that research on decentralisation with developing world partners has the potential to catalyse radical change in unsustainable centralised western practices and thus will be mutually beneficial. There has been significant investment by charities and government agencies in developing novel wastewater treatment technologies and many are now close to market readiness. The Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand are piloting a suite of novel market-driven decentralised biological wastewater treatment technologies that were developed with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding. The technologies work but their performance is variable. There is evidence that this is caused by variability in the microbial populations at the heart of the technologies, which are poorly understood. We will work with AIT to characterise and optimise the structure and function of the microbial treatment communities. The aim will be to mitigate the risk of failure by refining the AIT designs and offering rapid low-tech remediation strategies that can be deployed by customers should failures occur. 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.