Recipient organisationUniversity of EdinburghSource-published name: The University of Edinburgh
Funding£7.0M
PeriodAug 2017 — Sept 2022
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
A research unit at the University of Edinburgh is building a network of partners in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, and Pakistan to tackle the high burden of respiratory disease in some of the world’s poorest populations. This matters because respiratory infections and chronic lung conditions disproportionately affect people in low- and middle-income countries, where access to effective diagnosis, treatment, and prevention is often limited. The unit will combine expertise in data science, clinical trials, and global health to generate evidence that can directly inform policy and practice. If successful, the work could change how respiratory care is delivered in these regions—for example, by improving training for health workers, strengthening surveillance of diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis, and developing affordable digital tools for diagnosis. The project also aims to build lasting research capacity in partner countries through joint training, secondments, and collaborative grant writing. The research is applied and policy-focused, not fundamental science. Its primary goal is to produce actionable findings that reduce illness and death from respiratory conditions in the communities that need it most.
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Strategic alignment: We are aligned with UoE priorities in “Digital transformation & data” and “Influencing globally”, which highlight the untapped potential to develop mutually enriching, data-enabled partnerships to support transformational change. We will leverage the resources of Edinburgh Data Science and the Global Health Academy (GHA). More specifically, RESPIRE will synergise efforts from the Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences & Informatics (Usher), MRC Centre for Inflammation Research (CIR) with its clinical research expertise in respiratory disorders and the Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit (ECTU) with its expertise in statistics & evaluation of complex interventions. Furthermore, it builds on multi-million pound grants in applied research in asthma (Asthma UK), COPD (MRC), influenza (Horizon 2020), pneumonia (Gates), RSV (IMI), lung imaging (EPSRC), TB (EDCTP), antimicrobial resistant lung infection (MRC), mHealth (FP7), data science (MRC/EPSRC), & health system governance (EU/WT). Existing infrastructure: RESPIRE will be based in the Usher, which houses the Centres of Global Health Research & Medical Informatics and is home to a large (>250) multi-disciplinary research group & a cohort of MPH (~50) & PhD students (~75). It hosts the Farr Institute, Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR), RSV consortium in Europe (RESCEU) (~60 partners), RSV Global Epidemiology Network (>70 LMIC research groups) and WHO’s Collaborating Centre for Population Health Research and Training, and runs online Masters in Public Health, Family Medicine and Global eHealth. See accompanying letter detailing UoE’s institutional support. Partnerships & capacity/capability strengthening: RESPIRE will work through building respectful, reciprocal, sustainable relationships. These, for example, include the WHO PREPARE study which has assembled data on 200k pneumonia cases from >40 (mainly) LMIC groups to inform WHO global policy on pneumonia. We have partnered with countries in South Asia, namely Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Pakistan: i) that have a high respiratory disease burden and unmet need; ii) with whom we have a proven track-record; iii) where there is opportunity to complement existing efforts; and iv) where there is institutional support to engage in transformative applied respiratory research in the poorest populations. This geographically focused approach will allow us to develop a regional network of excellence. Our key partnerships in these partner LMICs are detailed below. We also have the following UK/international partners: • University College London (UCL): We will draw on the expertise of Zumla’s team in infectious diseases in LMICs & also learn from their track-record of building equitable partnerships/capacity development, aligned closely to research/training needs. • Education for Health (EfH): We will capitalise on EfH’s track-record of training professionals (online & train-the-trainer approaches) in provision of respiratory care, including in partner LMICs. • International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG): We will leverage the IPCRG’s membership of the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD) and the global needs assessment/research prioritisation exercises and regional research workshops that we have undertaken with the IPCRG and partner LMICs, with a view to developing long-term alliances. Capacity and capability will be increased through collaborative working on programmes, running face-to-face/online research masterclasses, supporting secondments, increasing intake of Masters and PhD students from target LMICs, and collaboratively developing follow-on grants. We will follow the 11 principles of research partnerships promoted by GCRF/NIHR–for example, by: setting research agendas through joint decision-making and promoting mutual learning through close interaction among all partners; and establishing fair data access, authorship and other benefit-sha
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