Innovation, new technologies, science and a strong evidence base are essential for improving and sustaining the best development and humanitarian outcomes for the poorest. They help us enhance the ways in which we currently work and make decisions based on the best value for money.
DFID has a strong commitment to commissioning world class research which directly improves people’s lives, and ensuring that it is readily available to those who can use it around the world. DFID also aims to use the best evidence, from any source, in its own decisions, and to evaluate programmes so that we can learn lessons from them.
Our work includes support for:
- Research that can lead to new technologies and better ways of helping the poorest. Recent examples include new drugs for malaria and sleeping sickness, better diagnostic tests for tuberculosis, vaccines for diseases of African cattle, flood-resistant ‘scuba’ rice and drought-resistant crops.
- Studies that allow us to do more with our money. For example, the DART trial co-funded with the Medical Research Council showed that expensive laboratory testing in Africa can be scaled back without affecting the health of patients with HIV enabling one third more people to receive antiretroviral treatment for the same cost. A trial of vitamin A supplementation showed it to be ineffective for pregnant women. It can now be better directed at other vulnerable groups.
- Studies that help improve governance and counter corruption. For example, studies show that taxation, when properly applied, strengthens the relationship between a government and its taxpayers as well as promoting growth and raising revenue.
In order to gain the best possible results from our research we work with expert partners from the public and private sectors, including many of the world’s leading universities, the UK Research Councils and Foundations, other UK Government Departments, major multilateral agencies, and in product development partnerships with the private sector.
In this section you will find information about our current research and findings from research that DFID has funded in the past.