The Global Health Policy and Systems Research (Global HPSR) programme aims to support health policy and systems research that is directly and primarily of benefit to people in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
The Global Health Policy and Systems Research (Global HPSR) programme aims to support health policy and systems research that is directly and primarily of benefit to people in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
The Global Health Policy and Systems Research (Global HPSR) programme supports high quality, appropriate and applicable research that aims to improve whole health systems and health services in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
To date the programme has offered three types of funding award:
The programme supports development of equitable partnerships between LMIC and UK researchers, who together engage stakeholders to identify and address priorities for research in health policy and health systems, and develop plans for capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing.
Global HPSR research projects are expected to underpin the WHO #HealthForAll campaign to promote universal health coverage and support meeting UN SDG 3: ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.
The scope of the Global HPSR programme is broad, covering any area of applied health policy, health services and whole systems research that can ultimately strengthen and improve health systems for people in LMICs on the DAC list.
The scope includes but is not limited to applied research on wider elements of health systems such as governance, financing, health workforce, information systems, quality, and service delivery on health services and on the impacts of broader determinants of health. It can involve global health policy and systems research across the following domains:
• patient and practitioners (micro-level)
• organisation and delivery of health care (meso-level)
• national and regional (macro-level)
Research applications must have two Joint Leads; these will normally be Principal Investigators employed by a Higher Education Institution (HEI) or Research Institute based in either an LMIC (on the DAC list) or the UK.
An LMIC contracting institution may propose joint leadership with another LMIC HEI or Research Institute or a UK HEI or Research Institute. If the contracting institution is UK-based, then it is mandatory to jointly lead with an LMIC institution.
Applications must demonstrate how the research proposal meets ODA compliance criteria.
Find out more about ODA eligibility
Applications to the Global HPSR programme are peer reviewed by professional and public reviewers, then considered by a funding committee. The committees recommend projects for funding to the Department of Health and Social Care, which approves which projects should be funded.
Members of NIHR Committees are required to declare any interests which conflict, or may be considered to conflict, with NIHR business, or may be perceived as influencing decisions made in the course of their work within NIHR programmes. All members are asked to complete the Register of Interest form (annually), which is intended to capture long term predictable interests that could be perceived to lead to conflicts of interest. These and other interests are judged on a case by case basis at individual meetings.
The Global HPSR Funding Committee is chaired by Professor Anne Mills.
View the full membership of the Funding Committee.
To date the Global HPSR programme has held two funding calls as part of a series of three complementary research funding opportunities. These have been informed by stakeholder engagement, including the development of a global HPSR community of interest.
Development awards support equitable partnerships between researchers in LMICs and those in the UK to:
The aim is that the work undertaken during a development award will support an application for future research funding from the Global HPSR programme.
The first call opened June 2019, and offered funding of up to £100,000 per award for a duration of up to 9 months,
A commissioned funding opportunity was held in September to December 2019, to award funding aligned with the WHO campaign to promote universal health coverage towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
The call awarded funding of up to 4 years and up to £4 million per award.
These awards provide funding to research consortia to deliver applied global health policy and systems research to address policy and health systems for people in LMICs through equitable partnerships. Consortia include two Joint Leads (LMIC/LMIC or LMIC/UK institutions) and up to an additional three research institutions in LMICs.
Through this call, awards of up to £4 million maximum (typical range £1-4 million) for a period of up to 4 years are available for eligible research.
We offer a wide variety of assistance during all stages of the research process. If in doubt, please get in touch.
Email: nihrglobalhealth@nihr.ac.uk
Our operating hours are 9am to 5pm.
The Global Health Research Programme is accepting Stage 1 applications for Global Health Research Groups.
All global health research funding opportunities
