NIHR Global Health Research Group on Nepal Injury Research, University of the West of England, Bristol

Rationale for our research. Injury is one of the most preventable public health problems globally, and typically affects the most vulnerable in society. According to the World Health Organisation, more than 5 million people die from injuries every year, or 9% of all global mortality. Ninety percent of injury deaths occur in low and middle income countries, of which Nepal is one of the least developed. Globally, road traffic injuries alone are set to rise to the 7th leading cause of global annual mortality by 2030. According to an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease study in 2016 (published by Kassenbaum in The Lancet), natural disasters and road traffic injury were two of the 10 lead contributors to disease burden (measured by disability adjusted life years) in Nepal in 2015. The aim of our NIHR Global Health Research Group is to establish the Nepal Injury Research Centre (NIRC) at Kathmandu Medical College, to understand and prevent injuries in Nepal. Our ambition is to establish a sustainable research infrastructure, capable of leading national injury prevention research programmes, and working with the Government of Nepal to use evidence to support the development of policy and change practice that will help to keep the population safe. Links to the Sustainable Development Goals Our programme of research will support action on two UN Sustainability Development Goals for road safety; target 11.2 (safe transport systems) and target 3.6; to halve the number of deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020. The Nepal Ministry of Health set this target in its Health Sector Strategy for 2015-2020. Globally, this target has not be met, and this failure to adequately act has led to the commitment from governments around the world to a further 10 years of action on road safety, as agreed in the Stockholm Declaration 2020. The consequences of injury can tip families into poverty, both through catastrophic health expenditure following an injury and lost of future earnings due to the consequences of injuries. Therefore efforts to reduce injuries also contribute to other SDGs; Reducing Inequality (SDG10) and Reducing Poverty (SDG1). Our programme of research will address recommendations made in the WHO World Reports on Child Injury and Road Traffic Injury Prevention i.e. to improve data quality, build the evidence base, support systems-based safety and inform policy, environmental change and education. Our partnerships The NIRC will harness UK and international expertise to support and develop existing Nepalese injury researchers with their established networks and knowledge. Our ethos is of participatory research to enable change. We build on over 10 years of injury research at UWE Bristol, partnering with colleagues in Nepal and Bangladesh, and including the supervision of post-graduate students from Nepal and other LMICs. Our primary academic partner in Nepal is Kathmandu Medical College, affiliated to Kathmandu University. Professor Sunil Kumar Joshi hosts the NIRC in the Department of Community Medicine, where he is Head of Department. A key research partner is Mother and Infant Research Activities (MIRA), a research NGO who provide the infrastructure, networks and logistics to capture high quality data from community settings. Applicants at UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol have worked with MIRA since it was established 24 years ago. We work closely with CIPRB (formerly, the Centre for Injury Prevention Research Bangladesh), who will provide operational and strategic guidance on establishing and sustaining a research centre in a low income country. Other research partners include Swatantrata Abhiyan (an advocacy NGO) and the Nepal Red Cross Society, Safe Crossings (a Dutch road safety NGO).We have an established relationship with the WHO Nepal Office who support us with access to resources, networking, meetings and planning for sustainability of the NIRC. Our approach We adopt a public health