NIHR Global Health Research Group on estimating the prevalence, quality of life, economic and societal impact of arthritis in Tanzania: a mixed methods study at University of Glasgow

A) Building on strategic objectives of UoG This work aligns with the University of Glasgow’s (UoG) strategic plan to be a world-class, world changing university and specifically, a place where research that positively impacts on the health, wealth and cultural wellbeing of the world is conducted, as laid out in ‘University of Glasgow, Inspiring People, Changing the World; University Strategy 2015-2020’. http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_410447_en.pdf Internationalisation is a central tenet underpinning this strategy and one evidenced in this proposal. B) Existing facilities The University of Glasgow (UoG), incorporates the Institutes of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine (IBAHCM), Health and Wellbeing (IHW), and Infection, Immunity and Inflammation (III). These Institutes build on existing strengths within UoG and its partner organisations, bringing together experts from a range of disciplines. The University provides an excellent scientific environment with dedicated Master's degrees, including the MSc in Global Health, MSc in Health Technology Assessment, alongside Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Courses and tailored seminars, to build academic and non-academic skills. The Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment (HEHTA) Group has a dedicated project manager, managing a portfolio of international projects and supporting communications, public engagement, and knowledge transfer/exchange. UoG will contribute financially to this programme through investigator time and supporting study visits, as detailed in the justification of costs. C) Link to existing Institutional partnerships and strategies This application represents a unique combination of experts from these Institutes within UoG, working together for the first time to directly address global health challenges. This application will allow these researchers to uniquely consolidate their research strengths by combining expertise in health economics with One Health, social science and infection, immunity and inflammation. This team reflects strength in three of UoG’s research beacons: Precision Medicine and Chronic Disease, One Health, and Addressing Inequalities. This team is uniquely positioned to commence research in to how to improve arthritis diagnosis and management as build social science capacity in TZ. The proposal is led by Professor Emma McIntosh (IHW), deputy director of the Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment (HEHTA) group, who brings almost 25 years expertise in health economics' methodology and health intervention assessment, along with project management, line management and interdisciplinary research experience. Health economist methodologists are ideally positioned to lead such a proposal given the capacity for economic methods to be embedded within every stage of research from conception and design to data collection and analysis. Professor McIntosh is supported in this proposal by senior researchers and clinicians with a wealth of experience in research collaboration. This proposal builds on recent platforms established for our successful One Health programme in Tanzania through IBAHCM, to allow for further engagement with University colleagues in IHW and III and the College of Social Science. IBAHCM has recently secured permanent UoG funding for a new Chair in Environmental and One Health Economics and an associated lecturer post in One Health Economics based in HEHTA. These new posts represent a strategic and sustainable investment by the UoG to develop its capacity in addressing Global Health Research challenges. In addition, McInnes (III) recently led a pan-European task force that created the RheumaMap that in turn sets out a 10 year vision and research agenda for Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal diseases (RMD)s. This vision in part sets out to seek equality of access and detection of RMDs early and accurately and the provision of care as required initially in