The Global Health Network Annual Report 2019

Better 

Research 

for Better 

Health 

Annual Report 

2019

The Global Health Network 

enables easier, faster, and 

better research in the world’s 

most challenging settings. 

Contents 

04 Introduction and Executive Summary 

06 A Digital Platform for Knowledge Mobilisation in Global Health 

11 Building Communities of Practice in Global Health Research 

16 The Global Health Training Centre 

22 Leadership from the Regions to Drive Capacity for Research 

28 Developing Careers and Fostering Team Capabilities 

30 Assessing Barriers and Enablers to Research, and Measuring the Impact of the Platform 

32 What next? The Strategic Development Plan 

THE GLOBAL HEALTH NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Chairman’s View 

Professor Pontiano Kaleebu, Chair, The Steering Committee 

Almost ten years have passed since this idea was first brought to me 

whilst we were sitting under some trees outside a capacity development 

meeting we were holding in Entebbe. I’m so delighted to see how this 

straightforward idea for health researchers to share what they have 

learnt and what they do has flourished in this remarkable way! 

We need more research to be led from Africa and the other regions, 

and to make this fundamental shift our researchers need to access 

information, training, resources AND each other! I am very happy to see 

that The Global Health Network is now really the place our teams can 

go to and find all they need for running excellent world-class studies. 

This platform is filling the gaps and joining up everyone working on 

different diseases, in different places and allowing for the sharing of 

‘how to’ between them. 

I think we need to look forward now and see how we can use this 

platform to take research findings into practice and policy, to see how we 

can improve, how we do studies and really make evidence generation 

part of how we work better to manage, treat and prevent the worst 

diseases that cause such devastating mortality in our communities. 

I am proud and delighted to chair the steering committee of The Global 

Health Network, and I hope you enjoy reading this annual report – 

more importantly I hope it encourages YOU to get involved with this, 

if you are not already. Please use this platform to share your methods, 

tools and knowledge and help make health research faster, easier and 

better across the globe. 

Yours 

Professor Pontiano Kaleebu, 

Director MRC/UVRI Uganda Unit 

Head - Basic Sciences Programme

Introduction and Executive Summary 

Professor Trudie Lang, Director, The Global Health Network 

Research is critical to solving 

the world’s biggest health 

challenges. 

Research is critical to solving the world’s 

biggest health challenges. The Global Health 

Network facilitates the sharing of knowledge, 

methods and tools between disease areas, 

regions and organisations to amplify research 

outputs. Research teams and professionals 

are being trained and supported to lead and 

undertake health research in the world’s 

most challenging settings. This is achieved 

by applying the best digital technology and 

harnessing the sharing phenomena to enable 

the capture of life-saving data. Here we set 

out the achievements of the past year to 

highlight the impactful work being delivered 

by the research groups who are using this 

platform for knowledge sharing between 

their partners and wider networks. 

The Global Health Network has two highly 

integrated elements; facilitating Communities 

of Practice through The Network Member 

Hubs for research consortia to enable 

knowledge exchange, and alongside this, 

delivering research capacity development 

through training, career development and by 

providing guidelines, tools and resources. This 

is all about tacit learning; sharing the ‘knowhow’ 

between organisations, roles, diseases 

and regions. 

This report provides an overview of 

the range of knowledge that is being 

shared between research teams all 

with the aim of driving faster and 

better research for better health 

across the globe. 

The Network Member Hubs are highly 

connected open hubs where research consortia 

are sharing data, knowledge, methods 

and know-how within their programmes 

and networks, and also with many others. 

These are vibrant, multi-functioned and 

personalised spaces where research teams 

can work together whilst also sharing what 

works to benefit their groups and others. 

Groups are disseminating evidence, policies, 

guidelines and methods for implementation 

of research. This sharing of best practice, 

and the tools to implement them, removes 

duplication whilst raising standards and 

quality. This is achieved because this is crosscutting 

and ground-up and so is minimising 

bottlenecks and delivering meaningful data 

efficiently and to a high quality. 

Integrated with these Member Hubs are 

numerous mechanisms for delivering 

research skills to build sustainable research 

capacity. Some of these tools and training 

courses guide research consortia on specific 

topics within their programmes, to ensure 

standardization and quality. The others are 

not focusing on any one disease but instead 

provide the general skills and knowledge 

needed to set up high quality research 

studies. Previous capacity building efforts 

have focused on one disease or one protocol. 

However, the elements researchers find 

difficult do not differ between disease or even 

the type of study. Therefore, solving the gaps 

in skills and information to address this leaves 

sustainable and adaptable capacity that can 

last beyond a single study. The Global Health 

Training Centre provides specifically designed 

training courses delivering research skills and 

know-how to healthcare workers. 

4 I THE GLOBAL HEALTH NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Summary of The Global Health Network’s impact: 

15 million 

visits to www.theglobalhealthnetwork.org 

600,000 

free online training courses taken by healthcare 

workers across the globe 

Another key barrier to research leadership in 

low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) 

is the ability for the whole research team 

to develop careers and to be recognized 

for their contribution to studies. To address 

this, the WHO/TDR partnership Professional 

Development Scheme for all roles of 

research staff was set-up. Here, this scheme 

is measuring research competencies to 

show and track capacity development, and 

this is working for individuals and also for 

organisations and research platforms. 

Working from, within and between global 

regions is fundamental to The Global Health 

Network and there are numerous countryled 

initiatives that are increasing research 

engagement, and providing practical support 

and training. This local leadership and regional 

ownership is aiming to empower healthcare 

professionals in the world’s most vulnerable 

regions to undertake locally led research. 

Making Research Easier, 

Faster and Better 

Tens of thousands of research methods, protocols 

and template documents downloaded, adapted 

and used – making research vastly easier, faster 

and better in the world’s poorest areas. 

Disseminating Methods, 

Tools and Know-How 

Large research consortia and organisations such 

as the World Health Organization (WHO) are using 

The Network to disseminate their research outputs, 

methods, tools and know-how. 

5

A Digital Platform for Knowledge 

Mobilisation in Global Health 

The Platform Overview 

The Global Health 

Network as a platform 

has evolved since its 

conception, through 

to the flourishing 

community space it is 

today, by providing a 

number of useful tools 

and resources tailored 

to support community 

interaction. Each 

Member Hub is set up 

for each partner to give 

them their own highly 

specific online working 

space. Thus providing 

high specification web 

technology that gives 

research consortia 

highly affordable 

and attainable 

access to their own 

bespoke mechanism 

for sharing their 

documents, processes 

and repositories of 

information. The aim 

is to make information 

discoverable through 

tagging and linking 

which gives prominence 

to information that is 

needed by researchers 

in each specific field. 

Some of the features 

available include: 

●●Dynamic homepages of curated and 

automated content, social media feeds 

and image reels 

●●Standard pages of web content including 

formatted text, images, video and maps 

●●Community building tools including 

member profiles, blogs, articles, social 

bookmarking, and closed and open 

discussion working group spaces 

Member Hubs can also take advantage of 

a number of cross-cutting tools, to provide 

essential capacity development and support 

for health researchers including: 

●●SiteFinder – matching service for research 

platforms to find suitable study partners 

●●Process Map – step-by-step guidance 

for planning a successful health research 

project 

●●The Global Health Training Centre – 

encompassing high quality eLearning 

and online training and a Professional 

Development Scheme to build a 

professional CV and track professional skills 

training over a researcher’s career. 

“The downloadable tools and templates are 

very resourceful. Also eLearning short-courses 

are vital in getting knowledge and updates. 

This should be encouraged to enable my entire 

medical team to benefit” 

Laboratory Staff Member, Kenya 

SURVEY QUOTE 

A typical user’s journey 

through The Global Health 

Network and the tools 

available, free to all health 

researchers anywhere 

IMPROVE RESEARCH 

By sharing resources, training teams, 

and developing careers to drive more 

and better evidence and translating 

this into changes in practice that 

improve health 

SITEFINDER 

Connect your study 

or research site with 

potential collaborators 


Digital Platform for Knowledge Mobilisation 

“I downloaded some microbiology standard 

operating procedures which I found useful 

indeed, furthermore I completed GCP, 

GCLP, Introduction to Clinical Research and 

Reviewing Genomic Data from Global Health” 

Field Worker, Uganda 

SURVEY QUOTE 

CREATE A PROFILE 

Join The Network to create 

a profile and connect with 

other health researchers 

JOIN A COMMUNITY 

Join a number of Member Hubs and find 

out more about specialty research areas, 

take part in discussions, post blogs and 

submit articles 

uExchanging methods, 

tools, know-how and 

outputs between 

diseases, regions, 

research areas and 

organisations 

TRAINING 

Take part in eLearning and gain 

certificates on successful completion 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

SCHEME 

Sign up to the Professional Development Scheme - 

build your research profile and track your professional 

development over time 

PROCESS MAP 

Use the Global Health Research Process 

Map to plan your study 

7

Platform Usage and Access 

60,00 

New members in 2018 


Network platform 

continues to experience 

strong growth with 

its user base and 

readership year on 

year. During this review 

period almost 60,000 

new memberships 

were registered, adding 

just fewer than 5,000 

new members per 

month. This drives 

capacity development 

in research and also 

enriches the platform 

with members’ input 

from discussions and 

article submissions 

through to queries and 

feedback concerning 

the platform and tools 

provided. 

From the platform’s feedback survey for this 

review period, more than 68% of visitors 

specified that they come to the platform from 

real-world recommendations – either by a 

friend, colleague or at an organisational level. 

Just under 25% reported hearing about the 

platform via referrals, search or article links. This 

shows very well how resources are passed on 

to physical networks by word of mouth and 

also highlights a useful area to focus on – better 

use of search engine optimisation and digital 

marketing. 

Search 

engine 

37 

Link from 

another 

website 

22 

Global 

Health 

Trials 

Workshop 

21 

Other 12 

Recommended by a 

friend, colleague or 

organisation 

193 


Digital Platform for Knowledge Mobilisation 

0 

Digital Development 

The Global Health Network platform uses 

cutting-edge, digital technology to drive 

dissemination, visibility and engagement. 

The digital platform is built on an open source 

development framework called Django, which 

is a high-level Python Web framework that 

encourages rapid development and clean, 

pragmatic design. This allows The Global 

Health Network to benefit from Django’s many 

advantages including high levels of security 

and scalability, as well as leveraging a large 

community of developers from across the 

globe investing time in continuous long-term 

development and support. It is used by many 

global organisations and industry leaders in 

business including some of the most widely 

used social media networking platforms. 

The platform also benefits from a number of 

popular widely used plugins and third-party 

software that enrich our users’ experience and 

provide better access to great quality global 

health research information. 

Looking forward, The Network continues to grow and with that 

growth comes new opportunities to expand on the proven concept 

of the platform. The up-coming development roadmap will look to 

cover some key items such as: 

●●Developing a new look and feel for the platform to allow easier 

navigation of content 

●●Enhance the eLearning platform with new course structures, navigation 

and dashboards providing a richer learning environment 

●●Further develop the Professional Development Scheme to allow more 

access to research groups from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) 

and implement better team reporting to research consortia wishing to track 

their team’s development through projects and their research cycle 

●●Continue to expand the number and breadth of Member Hubs and 

collaborations 

●●Develop the existing Process Map tool and create custom maps 

applicable for different research areas 

Furthermore, The Network has set out to 

make finding resources on the platform easier, 

smarter and faster. The implementation of 

a smart search and suggestion functionality 

within the platform will be investigated so 

that each user, from the moment they first 

visit and complete their profile through to 

active engagement on The Network, is able 

to see the most relevant content that meets 

their training and development needs. This 

will create a smarter learning and capacity 

development environment that successfully 

meets the needs of healthcare workers across 

the world to conduct high quality research. The 

potential to utilise cloud services and associated 

tooling, such as the intelligent search feature, 

will also strengthen The Network’s capabilities 

and future-proof the scaling-up of the platform, 

providing an exciting prospect of collaboration 

with technology partners in industry. 

Finding new and novel ways to reach ‘nobandwidth’ 

areas or areas of extremely poor 

connectivity is an area of great potential 

for solutions such as implementing offline 

apps and the production of a ‘platform on a 

stick’ offline version of The Network. Piloting 

such approaches in the field will provide an 

opportunity to road test these concepts and 

build tools that will better assist individuals 

and teams in remote locations to conduct high 

quality research. 

In order to help broaden and strengthen 

ownership of The Network and encourage 

local champions, more multilingual content via 

online tools and downloadable resources will 

be made available through the platform. This 

will improve accessibility of content to local 

healthcare workers and researchers, widening 

The Network’s reach. 

9

10 I THE GLOBAL HEALTH NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT 2019 

Jan – Feb 

9.4M

Building Communities of Practice 


in Global Health Research 

A Community of Practice is a group of 

practitioners (thus specialists in their fields) 

who come together to share experiences and 

knowledge, solve a shared problem, promote 

best practice and develop professional skills. 1 


Network has been 

conceptualized and 

implemented based 

on the concept of 

Communities of 

Practice 1 , aiming at 

creating an open, 

trusted and neutral 

platform to help 

facilitate and promote 

interactions and 

knowledge sharing 

between healthcare 

professionals, 

researchers and 

research consortia. 

The innovative application of the Communities 

of Practice concept to the field of global health 

research and the use of cutting-edge digital 

technology to build and link these online 

communities has made The Global Health 

Network platform a unique and valuable portal 

for knowledge exchange. This highly interactive 

digital ecosystem, with its many discussion 

forums, blog posts and groups, has facilitated 

the interaction between a multi-disciplinary 

audience of users – coming from 195 countries 

– and leveraged the sharing of practical 

experience between healthcare professionals, 

creating a self-sustaining platform whereby 

each user contribution has helped to increase 

the platform’s knowledge capital, and advance 

the research processes across the regions. 

Over the past 12 months, The Network has 

become the “science park” for 36 research 

consortia who have set up a Community of 

Practice and has grown by 34% in comparison 

to previous years. The Network received 5 

million visits, adding to an historical 15 million 

visits since its implementation in 2011. 

Jun – Jul 

11.8M 

Nov – Dec 

15 Million 

Frequency of visits to the 

The Global Health Network – 2018 

1 Wenger, E.C. and W.M. Snyder, Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier. Harvard Business Review, 2000. 78(1): p. 139-145. 

11

Linking the 

Member Hubs 

into Functional 

Knowledge 

Hubs 

In membership terms, The Network has 

experienced a soaring 44% increase in registered 

members to its many Member Hubs with 60,000 

members joining the platform in 2018, and adding 

to a pool of 135,000 registered members. The most 

popular communities were those where users 

could have rapid and facilitated access to training 

materials, and other downloadable resources such 

as guidelines and protocols for health research 

implementation (see table below). 

The interconnected structure of the platform 

has contributed to the development of fully 

functional, independent and self-organising 

Communities of Practice around seven 

complimentary thematic areas, namely: social 

sciences, ethics and community engagement; 

maternal health/mother and child research; 

laboratory, vectors and diagnostics; research 

consortia and networks; non-communicable 

diseases; research planning and methods; and 

infection, immunity and resistance (see panel far 

right). These thematic areas are non-exclusive 

and borrow knowledge from each other and from 

other hubs. This is beneficial to each Member Hub 

as they will always host additional content from 

other scientific areas, as well as beneficial to the 

members that can access a very complete suite 

of resources from within a single Member Hub. 

Top-10 Member Hubs hosted on The Global Health Network in 2018. 

*Cumulative non-exclusive memberships until December 2018. 

Member Hub Historical Historical Memberships Webplatform 

Views Sessions Ranking 

Global Health Training Centre 10,414,330 774,225 104,507 1 

Global Health Trials 1,969,404 535,855 24,855 2 

INTERGROWTH-21 st 398,529 130,343 1,981 3 

The Global Health Network 298,527 154,420 - 4 

(landing page) 

Research Nurses 129,343 38,790 2,905 5 

SiteFinder 115,975 35,215 2,418 6 

ISARIC 105,809 36,027 1,266 7 

Bioethics Research Review 85,956 32,509 11,203 8 

Laboratories 81,226 33,449 3,906 9 

Mesh 77,041 26,850 1,277 10 



Member Hubs Hosted 

on The Global Health 

Network in 2018 

Member Hub Name 

Thematic Area 

A good example here is the Mesh Member 

Hub, where a user can access various resources 

around community engagement on health 

research in low- and middle- income countries 

(LMICs), whilst learning about the application 

of ethics on health research implementation, 

taking training on fundraising in ethics and 

social sciences research, and furthering 

their understanding on engagement around 

epidemic response and preparedness. The 

interconnectivity and complementary nature 

of these hubs expose the members to a 

much richer and multidisciplinary knowledge 

environment, and contribute to more complete 

capacity development in health research. 

ALERRT 

Research Consortia and Networks 

Bioethics Research Review Social Science, Ethics and Communities 

Brain Infections Global Research Consortia and Networks 

Childhood Acute Illness and Research Consortia and Networks 

Nutrition Network (CHAIN) 

CONSISE 


Coordinators 


Data management Research Planning and Methods 

Dengue 

Laboratory, Vectors and Diagnostics 

Diagnostics 


EDCTP Knowledge Hub Research Planning and Methods 

Elsi 2.0 


Ergo 


GRAND 

Non-Communicable Disease 

Global Birth Defects Mother and Child 

Human Infection Studies Infection, Immunity and Resistance 

INTERGROWTH-21 st Mother and Child 

ISARIC 


Laboratories 


Mesh 


Mother Child Research Mother and Child 

Musculoskeletal 

Non-Communicable Disease 

Research Nurses 


Pharmacovigilance Laboratory, Vectors and Diagnostics 

PRECISE 

Mother and Child 

Pregnancy CoLab 

Mother and Child 

REDe 


Research Methods Research Planning and Methods 

Social Science 

Social Science, Ethics and Communities 

TDR Fellows 


TREAD 

Social Science, Ethics and Communities 

Global Health Trials Laboratory, Vectors and Diagnostics 

WEPHREN 


WWARN/IDDO 


Zika Infection 

Infection, Immunity and Resistance 

ZiKAlliance 


ZikaPlan 


13

Harnessing Online Resources 

and Interactions to Promote 

Change in Health Research 

There have been 

some extraordinary 

examples of how the 

interactive nature 

of The Global Health 

Network platform 

has contributed 

to advancing and 

developing health 

research capacity across 

the regions. 

A remarkable example came from Nigeria 

during the latest Lassa fever outbreak in 

early 2018. Dr Glory Ogunfowokan, Regional 

Faculty Lead, used the blog post facility on the 

Global Health Trials Member Hub to identify, 

organise and coordinate a response team of 

Nigerian healthcare professionals to fight the 

outbreak. His initiative triggered an interesting 

discussion session with the participation of 

many healthcare professionals, including 

a major funder contribution and offer to 

support research capacity and work. Such 

an example illustrates the power of these 

forums to harness local leadership and 

promote change-making collaborations that 

otherwise would be challenging to manifest. 

Another example is the use of The Global 

Health Training Centre to support training 

and knowledge standardisation prior to 

the implementation of a study led by the 

“Pregnancy Care Integrating translational 

Science, Everywhere” (PRECISE) team on 

pre-eclampsia and placenta displacement. 

“Working with The Global Health Network has been a fantastic 

opportunity to increase opportunities for developing the skills 

and capacity of staff across The PRECISE Network through the 

Professional Development Scheme and eLearning. We have had 

fantastic feedback from our teams in Africa about these aspects 

of The Global Health Network as well as using the private area 

for uploading study protocols and operating procedures that can 

be quickly and easily accessed by those working in the field. We 

have only been members since October 2018 and are excited to 

work with The Global Health Network to continue maximising the 

potential of this brilliant platform for our network.” 

Dr Meriel Flint-O’Kane 

PRECISE Community Programme Manager 



“Mesh now reaches an average of two or three thousand visits each month. This 

is in large part due to its position embedded within the larger community of The 

Global Health Network, enabling us to share resources with thousands of researchers 

we would not otherwise reach, and the support of The Global Health Network team 

in enhancing our social media presence and platform traffic. Being part of a greater 

whole also enables us to collaborate with other disciplines and provide tools to enhance 

research, for example, developing a specialist area on engagement and epidemics 

to support The Global Health Network member hubs that focus on epidemic 

preparedness and response. 

A key example of where The Global Health Network team has added value to Mesh this 

year is during a consultation we ran on a working document being produced by UNICEF. 

The communications and operations teams at The Global Health Network advised us on 

how to get this out to a wide audience and facilitated its sharing on other Member Hubs. 

We also received personalised advice and feedback on how best to present and share a 

new area of the platform making it more user friendly; an example of the value of their 

web communications expertise. The Global Health Network team also provide support 

on how we and our partners can develop high quality and widely used eLearning in the 

future. Taken together, all this support means we can run Mesh effectively and enable 

it to continually develop, building on the learning that The Global Health Network team 

are uniquely situated to gather and share due to their helicopter view of the Member 

Hubs, and building on their challenges and successes.” 

Natalie Hunter 

Mesh Coordinator, Wellcome 

15


Training Centre 

The Training Centre is extremely popular and is the 

most accessed area of the whole platform, with a total of 

over 10.5 million page views from over 785,000 sessions. 

Individuals from 195 countries across the globe have 

utilised The Training Centre. 

The Global Health Network continues to operate 

a free and open access Training Centre that 

provides research staff and healthcare workers 

of all roles, all regions and all disease areas 

with the ‘how-to’ training materials, resources, 

seminars, and toolkits required to safely conduct 

high quality research in resource-limited 

settings. The Training Centre is extremely 

popular and is the most accessed area of the 

whole platform, with a total of over 10.5 million 

page views from over 785,000 sessions. In 

2018, The Training Centre saw a 60% increase 

in traffic with Africa still the continent accessing 

it the most, with 31% of the overall traffic. 

Individuals from 195 countries across the globe 

have utilised The Training Centre. 

Each course is developed from material donated 

by respected organisations and institutions 

such as the World Health Organization, the 

Multi Regional Clinical Trials Center at Harvard 

University, Nuffield Council of Bioethics, the 

Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and 

Research, and many more. All courses are peer 

reviewed before launch, reviewed periodically 

and accessible in slow-speed internet areas. 

The online training courses continue to be 

hugely popular with 2018 seeing over 260,000 

modules taken by over 53,000 eLearners. 

Compared to 2017, this was a 58% and 63% 

increase, respectively, bringing the total overall 

modules taken to 600,000 by 110,000 eLearners 

with over 250,000 certificates awarded. 

In order to understand how impactful The Global 

Health Training Centre’s eLearning courses are to 

the research staff and healthcare workers that 

make up the overwhelming majority of the 

memberships, each course has an online survey 

incorporated. These surveys continue to provide 

extremely positive feedback with 96% stating 

they would recommend the eLearning courses 

to a colleague. Once users have completed a 

course they are asked how confident they are 

at implementing a course-specific task, on a 

scale of 1 to 10 (1 = not confident at all, 10 = 

extremely confident). Across all of The Global 

Health Network’s courses, 85% percent of users 

rated their confidence of completing the coursespecific 

tasks between 7 to 10. 

In 2019, The Training Centre’s Virtual Learning 

Environment will be upgraded to provide 

eLearners with an improved learning experience 

including a searchable table of courses, a 

personal course dashboard, updated course 

navigation, and much, much more. Several 

exciting new courses are already in development 

with multiple international organisations to 

meet identified knowledge gaps and these will 

be made available throughout the year. 


The Global Health Training Centre 

The Training 

Centre currently 

offers 30 open 

access online 

training courses 

consisting of 

80 individual 

learning modules 

including over 

50 modules 

translated into 

a variety of 

languages such as 

French, Spanish 

and Portuguese. 

260,000 

modules taken by over 

53,000 eLearners 

in 2018 

96% 

of eLearners said they would 

recommend the eLearning 

courses to a colleague 

85% 

of users rated their 

confidence of completing 

the course-specific 

tasks between 7 to 10 

250,000 

Certificates awarded 

The 5 most popular courses are: 

1 ICH Good Clinical practice E6 (R2) 

2 Research Ethics 

3 

Introduction to Clinical Research 

4 Essential Elements of Ethics 

5 Introduction to Good Clinical Laboratory Practice 

“WHAT eLEARNERS SAY 

“Very much helpful in a way that I know how 

and why should clinical trials and research be 

conducted.” 

Nurse, Malawi 

“It helped me a lot because I was able to get the 

information I needed to advance my argument in 

meetings and for references.” 

Project manager, Ghana 

“I have developed experience in 

research proposal and report 

writing. I have published articles 

and even have got research grant 

award in my institution currently 

with topics related to sexual and 

reproductive health.” 

Nurse, Ethiopia 

“It improved the standard how I do 

things and the confidence how I 

handle my work.” 

Nurse, Kenya 

“I was able to generate research 

questions and conduct more 

clinically relevant research.” 

Doctor, Nigeria 

17

“WHAT eLEARNERS SAY 

“I was equipped with knowledge 

on safety and quality for the 

realization of reliable results.” 

Laboratory Staff, Kenya 

“I work in the neonatal unit and 

the knowledge I acquired is 

really helping me to know how 

to measure and monitor their 

growth.” 

Nurse, Nigeria 

“It helped me to consciously 

ensure accuracy and 

completeness of any data am 

recording” 

Pharmacist, Nigeria 

“It gives some credibility to the 

training and quality control 

performed onsite.” 

Investigator, Thailand 

“These resources were very 

helpful during the initial phases 

of my transition from clinician 

to researcher and I use them 

mostly in my research role.” 

Investigator, Gambia 

“It helped me to review the 

research proposals assigned 

to me as a member in research 

ethics committee in my faculty.” 

Lecturer, Egypt 

” 

“I coordinate clinical 

activities in a 

fistula centre in my 

country, it gave me a 

broad appreciation 

of the problem and 

who the patients are 

and the experiences 

they have probably 

before they visit our 

facilities” 

Project manager, Ghana 

280,000 

Modules taken and eLearners per year 

240,000 

200,000 

600,000 

Modules Taken 

160,000 

120,000 

110,000 

eLearners 

80,000 

40,000 

Modules taken 

eLearners 

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 



eLearning Courses Hosted on 


Course 

Number 

of Modules Translations 

Acute Pneumococcal and Meningococcal Meningitis 1 

Basic Malaria Microscopy 5 

Children and Clinical Research 1 Spanish 

Congential Cytomegalovirus 1 

Data Safety Monitoring Boards for Clinical Trials 1 French 

Essential Elements of Ethics 11 

Ethics and best Practices in Data Sharing 1 

Ethics in epidemics, emergencies and disasters: Research, 7 

surveillance and patient care 

Ethics of Ancillary Care in Research 1 

Good Clinical Laboratory Practice 4 

Herpes Simplex Virus Encephalitis 1 

HIV Neuropathy 1 

How to Conduct GCP Inspections/Audits at the Clinical 1 

Investigator Site 

ICH Good Clinical Practice E6 (R2) 1 French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Vietnamese 

INTERGROWTH-21 st course on maternal, fetal and 2 Spanish, Portuguese 

newborn growth monitoring 

Introduction to Clinical Research 1 French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, 

Swahili 

Introduction to Collecting and Reporting Adverse Events 1 

Introduction to Data Management For Clinical 1 

Research Studies 

Introduction to GCLP 1 Spanish 

Introduction to Informed Consent 1 

Introduction to Reviewing Genomic Research 1 French, Spanish, Portuguese, 

Maternal Infections 6 

Neurological Infectious Diseases 17 

Obstetric Fistula 4 French 

Preterm infant feeding and growth monitoring: 3 Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian 

Implementation of the INTERGROWTH-21 st protocol 

Research Ethics 14 

The Research Question 1 French, Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese 

The Study Protocol: Part one 1 French 

The Study Protocol: Part two 1 French 

19

Case Study 

The INTERGROWTH-21 st 

Project 

The INTERGROWTH-21 st Project 

123,000 

INTERGROWTH-21st 

Tools Downloaded 

from 195 Countries 

6,662 

Courses Taken 

2,816 

eLearners 

3,470 

Certificates 

The International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium 

for the 21 st Century (INTERGROWTH-21 st ) 

is a collaboration between 300 researchers and 

clinicians from 27 institutions in 18 countries and 

coordinated from the University of Oxford. The 

objective is to improve perinatal health within a 

global context, thus reducing preterm birth and 

poor intrauterine growth. 

The INTERGROWTH-21 st project aimed to extend 

the established World Health Organization’s (WHO) 

Child Growth Standards into the foetal and neonatal 

period. Research findings from three populationbased 

studies provided new ways of classifying 

preterm and small for gestational age newborns. 

Furthermore, the INTERGROWTH-21 st Consortium 

have produced a new international equation for 

estimating gestational age through ultrasound, 

based on the first international crown-rump length 

standards. 

In addition to these tools and resources, an 

accompanying course has been developed, and 

is hosted on the Global Health Training Centre in 

English, Spanish and Portuguese. The objective 

of the course is to guide eLearners through the 

methodology of maternal, foetal and newborn 

growth monitoring, and the application of the 

INTERGROWTH-21 st international growth standards. 

At the end of 2018, this two-module course had 

6,662 modules taken by 2,816 eLearners with 3,470 

certificates awarded (certificates per module). 



Case Study 

The INTERGROWTH-21 st 

Project 

WHO Toolkit for research 

and development of paediatric 

antiretroviral drugs and 

formulations 

In 2018, The Global Health Training Centre 

developed and launched the online 

version of the WHO toolkit for research and 

development of paediatric antiretroviral drugs 

and formulations. Research and development 

of antiretroviral drugs and formulations for 

children has traditionally lagged behind that of 

adult versions of the drugs. The toolkit consists 

of ten modules and provides online access for 

drug manufacturers, regulatory authorities, 

and more widely by the global research 

community, to help facilitate and accelerate the 

development of HIV drugs for children. 

21

Leadership from the 

Regions to Drive Capacity 

for Research 


Network is involved 

in two preparedness 

initiatives. By working 

to develop research 

capacity, these networks 

are encouraging and 

building the skills of 

clinical and laboratory 

researchers. 

The Research Capacity Network, REDe – 

established through a single work package 

that is common and runs across three EUfunded 

Zika consortia (ZIKAction, ZIKAlliance 

and ZikaPLAN) in Latin America and the 

Caribbean. 

This Project has received funding 

from the European Union’s Horizon 

2020 research and innovation 

programme under grant agreement 

No.s 734548, 734584, 734857 

The African coaLition for Epidemic Research, 

Response and Training (ALERRT) – a clinical research 

and response network for epidemic infections in 

sub-Saharan Africa. 

This Network is supported by the European 

& Developing Countries Clinical Trials 

Partnership (EDCTP) 2 Programme under 

the European Union - grant agreement 

number RIA2016E-1612. Its initial focus is 

on advancing rapid and coherent research 

response in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). 

Case Study: 

Setting up Platforms in Latin America 

As the Zika consortia started to set up their various observational 

and pregnancy cohort studies, REDe assisted by hosting a series 

of webinars – one of which was the concept of conducting a study 

walkthrough using the research platform. 

This is a great way to explain the whole study to everyone 

involved. The importance of involving all staff was emphasised 

so that everyone can work through what happens to a 

participant at each stage, what the tasks of a particular 

member of staff would be, and how these tasks are 

conducted. This task-specific approach means that 

staff learns the study procedures by ‘doing’, rather 

than simply reading the study manual. This 

method is easy to do as the costs are low and 

it helps flag any problems that may not have 

been previously identified, e.g. a problem 

could be anything from the logistics of getting 

a participant from the examination room to 

another part of the hospital to take consent, to 

missing a check box on the case report form. 


Driving Capacity for Research 

REDe means ‘network’ in Spanish and 

Portuguese, pronounced as the word 

‘ready’ in English - for being prepared. 

We think that this is quite apt for 

creating a preparedness network in 

Latin America and the Caribbean in the 

event of outbreak. 

So, researchers are READY to respond in 

an outbreak situation, using the ZIKA 

outbreak as a platform. 

To meet this objective, The Network links 

together experienced research groups, creating 

and strengthening a cadre of experienced, 

willing research staff, undertaking highquality 

research, and ethical data capture. The 

locally led alliance of partners coordinate and 

contribute to the knowledge, research tools and 

training; fostering links between experienced 

and inexperienced research platforms, which 

underpins the strength of these networks. 

As a strong component of these networks, the 

regional faculty programme runs extensive 

training events in and around the world, based 

on the perceived research capacity needs of 

each target setting. Many research centres 

have specifically chosen to run blended learning 

programmes and open workshops focusing on 

clinical research ethics or career development 

for researchers, responding to demand in 

these areas. To date, these Research Capacity 

Networks, REDe and ALERRT, have run 40 

workshops across 14 countries. The following 

short excerpts briefly describe some of these 

networks’ faculty activities: 

INDIA: Clinical research workshops have 

been conducted for healthcare workers, 

laboratory staff and nurses, with the aim to 

introduce the importance of research and the 

opportunities it offers. 

NIGERIA: Building research capacity 

for clinical research professionals through 

workshops, blended learning programmes, 

networking initiatives, training opportunities, 

and the creation of online toolkits. In July 2018, a 

two-day workshop took place in Abuja with over 

350 attendees. 

HONDURAS: Platforms conducting 

regulatory standard clinical trials most 

commonly discuss difficulties with regulatory 

processes; as this stage creates significant 

barriers to conducting timely, and further 

research, creating a need for increased and 

standardised documentation such as Standard 

Operating Procedures (SOPs). This Regional 

Faculty works alongside ethical and regulatory 

review boards to provide training to its members, 

bringing together the local research community 

through conferences, workshops and events. 

SOUTH AFRICA: Pioneers of the 

blended learning initiatives and trailblazers of a 

‘twinning’ initiative in which one platform works 

alongside a more experienced vaccine platform, 

to learn about Phase I studies. This faculty has 

also hosted numerous free workshops appealing 

to research staff at all levels. 

23

WORKSHOP FEEDBACK 

Case Study: 

Response to the plague 

outbreak – capacity 

building workshop for 

local research staff 

“This platform will be of great 

help for our training and 

development in the field of 

health, and will help us to be 

more updated as it is a global, 

interactive and dynamic 

platform.” 

Doctor, Madagascar 

The Global Health Network, ALERRT and 

Institut Pasteur de Madagascar ran a 

workshop to support research capacity 

development in Madagascar in response to 

the outbreak of the plague. 

The aim was to: 

• work with local research organisations 

to describe the health research capacity 

gaps in Madagascar, 

• see if a shared goal could be found 

where these organisations would like to 

be in terms of research being led from 

the country, and 

• determine a set of short, medium and 

longer-term mechanisms for addressing 

these. 

There were several components to the 

workshop including: 

The next steps: 

Access to shared training and capacity 

development opportunities was a clear 

finding – in response to this there are 

several initiatives including setting up a 

Health Research Network in Madagascar, 

and establishing an exchange programme 

around a Disease Surveillance System. 

A Disease Surveillance System is the 

fundamental starting point for health 

research and addressing critical capacity 

gaps. Unless there is an understanding of 

the population, their access to healthcare, 

what the healthcare structure is and what 

diseases are affecting the population, it 

is impossible to plan drug and vaccine 

studies. 

• preparation meetings with institutions 

such as: MISA (Computer Science 

Mathematics and Applied Statistics)/ 

University of Antananarivo; INSTAT 

(National Institute of STATistics); IPM 

(Institute Pasteur Madagascar) – 

Epidemiology, Clinical Research Unit, 

Plague Unit, Clinical Biology Center, 

Mycobacteria Unit and Virology Unit; 

LARTIC (Health Information system 

laboratory); Hospital in Befelatanana 

in Antananarivo; Faculty of Medicine, 

University of Antananarivo, 

• workshops with focus groups activities 

– introducing a qualitative research 

element 

• debrief meetings. 



Case Study: 

Data Sharing Workshop 

With the “Open Science” revolution, researchers 

are expected to provide open access to 

information about their study’s methods, 

analyses and results. Funders argue that data 

sharing can enable faster evidence generation. 

However, data sharing is a relatively new 

phenomenon and considerable confusion still 

exists around what it means to share data, 

how it can be achieved, and how to overcome 

potential barriers. 

The Global Health Network ran a workshop 

to bring together experts who shared their 

experience on the issues and challenges of 

data sharing. Professor Oumar Gaye, Université 

Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal, along with 

Professor Philippe Guérin, Infectious Diseases 

Data Observatory (IDDO), University of Oxford, 

United Kingdom and Professor Trudie Lang, The 

Global Health Network, University of Oxford 

presented. 

Professor Oumar Gaye’s presentation specifically 

honed in on malaria as a case study and as a 

community that has embraced responsible, 

collaborative data sharing, discussing the 

pathway undertaken to establish the trust and 

collaboration that now exists. 

Professor Trudie Lang gave an overview of The 

Network and explained their efforts to progress 

capacity building initiatives. The Network 

is currently collaborating with The European 

Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), to develop a 

“Knowledge Hub” that will address the training 

needs of EDCTP’s grantees with regards to 

protocol development, data management and 

data sharing. 

Professor Philippe Guerin spoke of the 

importance of data sharing, the challenges it 

presents and the benefits to be gained, as well 

as more broadly about the scope and objectives 

of IDDO. 

Breakout 

Session 

As part of the 

interactive breakout 

session, participants were 

divided into three groups, 

with each group assigned 

a topic for discussion. 

The topics included: 

1 

The perceived barriers 

to data sharing 

2 

The potential 

opportunities and 

benefits of data sharing 

3 

The training and 

resources required for 

data sharing 

25

Research Capacity 

Activity, Honduras 

The Nigerian 

Regional Faculty 

An induction meeting on The Global Health 

Network and REDe platforms took place 

in the computer laboratory of the Nursing 

School with the participation from the 

undergraduate students who are attending 

the Rural Community Nursing class. This 

class was part of the ‘Research Methodology 

Module’ of the curriculum. Students take 

theory classes for four weeks, and then 

transfer to different hospitals and health 

centres in the country. As part of the module, 

the students are expected to conduct a 

research study in the community. 

The objective of the induction meeting was 

to inform the students about The Network 

and REDe resources and tools, to strengthen 

their research capacity with emphasis on 

research methodology and research 

ethics courses (i.e. Introduction to 

Clinical Research, The Research 

Question, The Study Protocol: 

part 1 and 2, and Good Clinical 

Laboratory Practice). The 

platform was explored 

in real time and most 

of the students 

proceeded to their 

registration using 

the computers in 

the laboratory. 

The Nigerian 

Regional Faculty 

organised a free 

clinical research 

capacity building 

workshop in 

July 2018, which 

was attended by 

over 200 nurses, 

pharmacists, 

laboratory and 

social scientists. 



The opening speech was given by Mr Umar 

Aliyu, Head of Department and Deputy Director 

of Nursing Services at the National Hospital, 

Abuja. Dr Saleh Garba, Head, Department of 

Nursing Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 

followed with a presentation on ‘Implementing 

research results in clinical practice; the 

experience of nursing professionals’. 

WORKSHOP FEEDBACK 

“Networking and sharing is very important in 

building capacity in clinical research, as that is a 

very typical way of improving and strengthening 

the knowledge of local research, therefore enabling 

and empowering them to do better clinical research, 

comparable to the standards in other parts in the 

world, and that is very important because as they 

are now able to do research embedded in the local 

context, solving real-life problems that enhances that 

community or society.” Doctor, Nigeria 

The presenter highlighted barriers to implementation 

of clinical research findings by nurses in Nigeria 

and made suggestions on ways to improve the 

implementation of research results by nurses. 

Further talks were conducted on Pharmacovigilance 

in Clinical Research, where participants were 

encouraged to get involved in research studies 

while carrying out their routine clinical duties. 

The role that clinicians and nurses (since they 

are with the in-patients 24 hours a day) play in 

pharmacovigilance was also discussed, such as the 

importance of reporting adverse drug reactions and 

documentation, e.g. photographic and documented 

records of such incidents. 

27

Developing Careers and Fostering 

Team Capabilities 

A mechanism for tracking professional 

development and measuring changes in 

capacity development 

The Professional 

Development Scheme 

(PDS) was devised to give 

health research staff a 

mechanism to record 

their research skills and 

experience. Measuring 

the acquisition of 

research competencies 

also generates 

comprehensive data on 

the impact of capacity 

development initiatives. 

Lack of recognition for working in research is 

widely cited as an impediment to its conduct. 

There is a lack of career structure for the many 

roles involved in research (investigators, trial 

managers, nurses, local healthcare workers), 

and a lack of understanding of who does 

what. Competency frameworks exist for some 

individual job roles, but these are infrequent; 

thus a global framework describing all of the 

roles and responsibilities in a research team 

was needed. The Global Health Network in 

conjunction with the WHO Special Programme 

for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases 

(TDR) combined 28 frameworks created by 

external groups, with information from 116 job 

descriptions obtained from partners in clinical 

trial units worldwide and from the web, to 

create a widely encompassing framework 

derived from 11 different roles. The resulting 

framework presents 50 competencies required 

throughout a study lifecycle, from assessment 

of scientific literature to results dissemination 

via project management, public engagement or 

grant application. It is applicable to studies that 

may differ in design, geographical location, and 

disease and can be adapted to the particular 

needs of specific projects or roles. 

The research competency framework forms the 

core component of the PDS; an innovative and 

unique online tool providing researchers with a 

reliable mechanism to record their skillset, track 

their career development and identify gaps in 

their knowledge. 

“Ground-breaking tool to measure 

the impact of capacity development “ 


Developing Careers 

The PDS provides a step-by-step process for 

all researchers to document their career thus 

gathering further points as they gain experience 

and vocational research skills. Members assess 

their research competencies, are awarded a 

membership level and are required every year 

to go through a review process to update their 

points and progress through the 25 levels of the 

scheme. The PDS is an audited and highly robust 

system that provides ongoing recognition for 

research staff to support and guide their career 

development and identify training and skills 

gaps. 

By collecting and collating the data from all 

members of a team this system enables 

platforms or groups to showcase their 

experience, and monitor and report their team’s 

capacity development over time. This facility 

provides a reporting system that measures 

progress on the development of research 

capabilities and allows study managers or 

consortia to quickly and easily produce reports 

for their specific programme or teams. This 

scheme is entirely unique and very powerful 

as it provides robust evidence that can be used 

to seek investment and funding to address 

capacity gaps. Research coordinators, funders 

and sponsors can be given access to data on 

large networks, individual platforms or specific 

staff roles; thus measuring the impact of 

capacity development initiatives. 

29

Assessing Barriers and 

Enablers to Research, and 

Measuring the Impact of 

the Platform 

The research resources 

available on The Global 

Health Network have 

been downloaded 

and accessed many 

hundreds of thousands 

of times. To understand 

how the information is 

being used, The Network 

is setting out to assess 

the impact the resources 

are making on research 

and practice, starting 

in the area of child 

development. 

The Network has served as a mechanism 

for disseminating growth and development 

resources and training for a research consortium 

called INTERGROWTH-21 st and these have 

been downloaded by over 120,000 healthcare 

workers and researchers in 195 countries. Due 

to the popularity of the INTERGROWTH-21 st 

resources on the platform, The Network, in 

collaboration with the Nuffield Department of 

Women’s & Reproductive Health, is undertaking 

a comprehensive mixed methods study to 

understand the impact of these resources. 

The findings from the study will determine 

where the gaps exist and help to understand 

whether the resources benefited both practice 

and research, and to guide The Network in 

making even more resources available to take 

advantage of areas of opportunity. 

The strongest themes repeated throughout the survey responses were: 

1 Ongoing availability of research staff in the clinic and the laboratory 

2 Institutional mandate to engage in research 

3 Career development and support for research work within clinical and 

laboratory roles 

4 Strategic use of funding to allow healthcare centres to build infrastructure: 

rather than a ‘platform’ within a healthcare centre 

Thus we believe these themes could be tackled by working at a healthcare 

delivery level approach, which is exactly what we are doing with The 

Global Health Network. 


Barriers and Enablers to Research and Measuring Impact 

The latest Ebola outbreak and rapid spread of 

the Zika virus epidemic highlighted the lack of 

research capacity in low-resource regions in both 

the ability to undertake observational research 

to describe the diseases and subsequently 

to set up the regulatory standard clinical 

trials to assess potential drugs and vaccines. 

These outbreaks also made visible the lack 

of research being done day to day to address 

local healthcare needs of these communities. 

We would argue that it is the lack of day-today 

research that is the true problem, because 

if that capacity were in place, these researchers 

could respond to an outbreak. 

In preparation for future epidemics, the 

World Bank led a taskforce to establish an 

understanding of what research capacity exists 

at present across low- and middle-income 

countries (LMICs) for conducting vaccine 

research. The Network’s platform utilised its 

resources to assess the research capacity in 

LMICs. The uptake of the survey was very popular 

with over 5,000 responses. The overwhelming 

response from the survey demonstrates 

how well The Network communicates with 

researchers and healthcare workers in LMICs. 

within those institutions. This has resulted in 

situations where a state-of-the-art research 

group within a hospital has their own laboratory 

to work on one disease (e.g. HIV or malaria), 

but are also just hundreds of metres away from 

other clinical groups who have no experience in 

producing high quality research. 

The gaps and issues reported by the researchers 

who responded to the survey shows that research 

should be embedded in healthcare delivery, 

and in order for this to happen, institutions and/ 

or governments need to recognise the value of 

research. If research activities are limited to one 

disease or protocol, then the ability for research 

is not extended beyond that specific therapeutic 

area. This is not conducive to long-term research 

capacity, and furthermore, limits the ability to 

effectively respond to outbreaks. Importantly, 

we have shown that the skills, infrastructure, 

regulatory ability and oversight do not differ 

significantly between disease or research types. 

As the skillset for conducting clinical research is 

therefore largely similar, it would be possible 

to make improvements in research capacity 

by working with healthcare-providing facilities 

instead of isolated groups. 

We already knew that over the past twenty 

years there has been a steady increase in the 

amount of regulatory standard clinical trials 

occurring in low-resource countries. These 

studies have largely been led by publicprivate 

partnerships and have assessed drugs 

and vaccines for HIV, TB and Malaria. These 

programmes have made a remarkable impact 

and have left teams within research platforms 

well equipped, trained and able to undertake 

clinical research. Further, these studies can 

largely be credited for the strong capacity that 

does exist in limited resource settings. However, 

whilst these externally sponsored programmes 

have invested in specific teams within hospitals 

and/or universities, we found that the skills and 

abilities have not necessarily been transferred 

31

What Next? 

In 2013, the WHO said that unless 

low- and middle-income countries 

(LMICs) become the generators and 

not the recipients of health research 

data, then there will never be any real 

improvement in the greatest burdens 

to public health in these countries. Our 

survey findings echoed this call and 

produced unique evidence to show 

why we need to strengthen research 

awareness and capacity in low-income 

countries with a high burden of disease. 

If we can equip these regions with 

the skills and resources to undertake 

research on the everyday disease 

burdens that cause such high levels 

of early mortality, then interventions 

and prevention approaches can be 

identified and tested, which could bring 

significant change in health outcomes. 

Then, with this embedded ability to 

undertake research, these vulnerable 

regions would also be better placed to 

lead and undertake their own research 

response within outbreaks. 


Strategic Development 

The Strategic 

Development 

Plan 

Therefore, central to our strategic development 

plan is to strengthen regional engagement 

and leadership of The Global Health Network. 

Here, the intent is that the concept, approach 

and platform are taken up with partners in 

the region who will lead regional hubs. These 

hubs can coordinate the regional capacity 

development network and use The Global 

Health Network platform as the central vehicle 

for connecting research organisations and 

sharing expertise and skills locally, between 

healthcare organisations, universities, health 

charities and government health agencies. The 

main focus, however, will be running the faceto-face 

activities that work so well in engaging 

frontline healthcare workers in research and 

using evidence in practice. Here, we have 

toolkits of activities that have proven to work 

so well, such as supported learning sessions, 

reciprocal monitoring and research quality 

management, workshops and mentoring. The 

mix of these ‘on the ground’ activities and the 

resources, communities and training online 

is a sustainable and long-term solution for 

delivering real research capacity development 

that supports more and better research in the 

most underserved regions, and that works for 

any disease and in any healthcare setting. 

Our most exciting development that we are 

currently working on is about discoverability 

and information architecture. Our vision here 

is to harness the technology that is used 

commercially so widely to persuade us to book 

a hotel or order a book. Our goal is to provide 

researchers and healthcare workers in clinics 

and laboratories with information that they 

would not have known existed. So, for example, 

if there was a researcher planning a study on 

Leishmaniasis in Ghana they might have found 

a protocol on this platform. What we want 

to build in, using machine learning, is that 

alongside the protocol, they would be offered 

case report forms, standard outcome measures, 

a consent template, and a guide for community 

engagement; all focused on Leishmaniasis and 

encompassing all that the team would need to 

conduct a world-class study using standards and 

practices that are out there, but were previously 

unknown to this team. With this technology we 

could allow researchers to discover resources, 

tools, guidance and training that can enable 

high quality research that generates fast and 

better data that is ready to be shared. 

In order to deliver the ability to share 

information to enable world-class standard 

research anywhere in the world, The Global 

Health Network needs to apply the very best 

digital technology. Here, we are focusing 

on growing the scale and discoverability of 

information. We need this platform to be 

accessible everywhere and to run at optimum 

speed, even in low-bandwidth regions. We are 

exploring cloud technology and placing The 

Global Health Network platform in strategic 

hubs across the globe. All the resources and 

content are designed to work on all devices and 

on low-band width internet; we also continually 

ensure the platform is fully compliant with all 

data privacy laws and regulations. 

33

The Global Health Network Collaborators 

The Global Health Network Funders 

Brain Infections Global 

Brain Infections UK 

Centre for Immunology and Vaccinology, Imperial College London 

Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition Network 

Clinton Health Access Initiative 

Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research 

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health 

CONSISE 

DF/NET Research 

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative 

East African Consortium for Clinical Research 

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDs Foundation 

ELSI2.0 

Epidemic Diseases Research Group Oxford 

ETHOX 

Faculty for Capacity Development 

Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research 

Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health 

Global Health Clinical Consortium 

Industry Liason Forum 

Infectious Diseases Data Observatory 

Infectious Diseases Research Institute 

Institute of Infections and Global Health, University of Liverpool 

INTERGROWTH-21 st 

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative 

International Committee for Congenital Anomaly Surveillance Tools 

International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network 

International Partnership for Microbicides 

International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium 

International Vaccine Institute 

INTERPRACTICE-21 st 

IQVIA 

Kings College London 

KWTRP KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme 

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 

London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine 

Magee Women's Research Insitute 

Maternal Health Task Force 

Medicines for Malaria Venture 

Medicines Patent Pool 

MORU Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit 

Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal 

Sciences, University of Oxford 

NurioID e-Learning 

OUCRU Oxford University Clinical Research Unit 

Oxford Maternal & Perinatal Health Institute 

Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS 

PATH 

Pregnancy Care Integrating translational Science, Everywhere Network 

TB Alliance 

TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Disease 

The Aga Khan University 

The Global Pregnancy Collaboration 

The Mutli-Regional Clinical Trials Center if Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard 

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals 

The Synergist 

The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust 

The Worldwide Prison Health Research & Engagement Network 

TRICLINIUM Clinical Development (Pty) Ltd 

UNICEF 

Wellcome 

World Health Organisation 

WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network 

ZIKACTION 

ZikAlliance 

ZikaPLAN 

European Union Horizon 

2020 Research and 

Innovation Programme 

©The Global Health Network 2019 


The Strategic Development Plan 

CONTACT 

The Global Health Network 

Nuffield Department of Medicine Research Building (NDMRB) 

University of Oxford 

Old Road Campus 

Roosevelt Drive 

Oxford 

OX3 7FZ 

Professor Trudie Lang, Director: trudie.lang@ndm.ox.ac.uk 

Liam Boggs, Senior Operations Manager: liam.boggs@ndm.ox.ac.uk 

35

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