A multi-disciplinary network of social scientists, policy makers, and civil society to fight TB epidemic in the Post-Soviet countries Tuberculosis remains one of the leaders of mortality causes worldwide, despite the fact that the disease is successfully treatable. Post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are on the list of high-priority countries for TB control. Exploring other existing networks around TB, we see that they tend to unite the key stakeholder groups among each other - researchers, the civil society or the policy makers with the researchers' network focusing more on medical research and social research around the TB epidemic being not well represented. The proposed unique multidisciplinary network of social scientists (economists, public health researchers, sociologists, epidemiologists, psychologists, criminologists, public communication experts), civil society activists and policy makers will become a platform for ongoing knowledge exchange not only within the groups of stakeholders but across enabling effective adoption of what works best in fighting TB epidemic. This exchange will enable the use of existing research to inform current development of policies and interventions, while establishing a policy-relevant research agenda for the future and reliable venues for dissemination of the results. The key stakeholders of the Network are civil society organizations (representing TB, HIV/AIDS patients, healthcare and public health professionals), policy makers and researchers. The aim of the network is to facilitate the generation of evidence to inform public health policies to reduce the tuberculosis (TB) burden in post-Soviet countries and promote ongoing knowledge exchange among all stakeholders. To achieve this aim, we plan to:  1. Create a platform for network members to promote their existing activities (country case studies, working papers, popular blogs) and collect reference metadata. 2. Hold policy dialogue and networking meetings once a year over 2 days attached to research training meetings for young scholars to allow for them to participate in policy dialogue. The meetings will provide space to share ideas and discuss policies, as well as to develop agenda for the region.  3. Build capacity for early career researchers via the Young Scholar Research Support programme, which is a novel feature of the proposed network.  4. Support TB-relevant research in the Network countries by addressing training needs of the network members and young scholars via webinars and training sessions at the meetings, running of the working paper series and developing methodology for scoping studies and reference metadata  We foresee the following outcomes of the Network existence:  1. Developed common TB-focused social research agenda for the region and bespoke agendas for the participating countries,  2. Better understanding of the context nationally, within the region and internationally;  3. Improved local research capacity and policy dialogue,  4. Established collaborations within and across countries (closing the circle of researchers, civil society activists and politicians within countries and enabling within and multi-disciplinary collaboration across countries),  5. Better understanding of available data for research and future data needs.  The proposed network is unique and we expect to leave a lasting legacy in the form (i) of established collaborations to lead to future grant applications; (ii) an established network to enable new collaborations in the future; (iii) changed local research culture striving for higher standards of research integrity and engagement of stakeholders throughout all the stages of research; (iv) changed culture of policy dialogue, which incorporates both research evidence and views of civil society activists representing patients and professionals; (v) enablement of future research through access to reference metadata and evidence from scoping studies. 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.