DFID and Research

• A new Research Strategy 2008-2013 (1.4mb) was published on 22 April 2008. At the launch the Secretary of State Douglas Alexander said "The sheer scale of this investment...will, I believe, put the United Kingdom at the forefront of research for development literally around the world. Yet with the opportunity this affords comes a heavy responsibility – to ensure that research provides the hard evidence we need to make an impact on the lives of the poorest people anywhere on the planet."
• New science, technologies and ideas are crucial for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, but global research investments are insufficient to match needs and do not focus on the priorities of the poor.
• Many technological and policy innovations require an international scale of research effort.
• DFID’s Central Research Department (CRD) commissions research to help fill this gap, aiming to ensure tangible outcomes on the livelihoods of the poor.
• CRD seeks to influence the international and UK research agendas, putting poverty reduction and the needs of the poor at the forefront of global research efforts.
• CRD manages long-term research initiatives that cut across individual countries or regions, and only funds activities if there are clear opportunities and mechanisms for the research to have a significant impact on poverty.
• CRD works closely with DFID’s Chief Scientific Adviser to maintain external links, particularly with UK Science, Whitehall and political stakeholders, to promote DFID’s agenda.
• Information on DFID's centrally funded research both past and present can be found on the website Research4Development.
• In the White Paper published in 2006 DFID stated it would double its funding for research by 2010

Last updated: 1 July 2008