​International funding opportunities

The majority of funding to support research for developing countries sits under three funders: The Global Challenge Research Fund, Newton Fund and Department for International Development.

Global Challenge Research Fund

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is a £1.5 billion fund announced by the UK Government in late 2015 to support cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries.

GCRF forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment, which is monitored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The GCRF delivery partners are: UK Research and Innovation, Scottish Funding Council, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, Department for Education Northern Ireland, Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society, British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering and UK Space Agency.

The Fund is advised by a Strategic Advisory Group and a UKRI International Development Peer Review College forms part of the GCRF global engagement strategy for Official Development Assistance (ODA) research.

For more information visit the GCRF website.

Newton Fund

The Newton Fund aims to promote the economic development and social welfare of either the partner countries or, through working with the partner country, to address the well being of communities. It will do so through strengthening partner country science and innovation capacity and unlocking further funding to support this work. It is also part of the UK’s official development assistance (ODA).

The Fund was launched in 2014 and originally consisted of £75 million each year for 5 years. In the 2015 UK Spending Review it was agreed to extend and expand the Fund. The Newton Fund was extended from 2019 to 2021 and expanded by doubling the £75 million investment to £150 million by 2021, leading to a £735 million UK investment to 2021, with partner countries providing matched resources within the Fund.

Additional information can be found on the Newton Fund website.

Department for International Development (DFID)

Research is at the heart of DFID’s thinking. High quality research which generates strong and applicable evidence helps us build good development programmes. Research can open up new possibilities and empower us to deal with difficult problems. Outputs from DFID funded research projects and programmes are available on Research for Development Outputs.

DFID has an open and enhanced access policy to help make the research we fund freely available and to increase the uptake and use of it. DFID’s Research uptake guidance and accompanying checklist provide information on DFID’s approach to research uptake and advice for designing a research uptake strategy.

DFID research has 3 strands of work:

• to develop new technologies and products such as drought resistant crops, better drugs for malaria and neglected diseases
• to help us understand what development approaches work most effectively in order to improve the impact and value for money of spending on development
• to improve our understanding of key development questions so that we make the best policy choices. For example, predicting the onset of the West African rains, finding out why girls leave school early and understanding causes and effects of corruption and how to address them.

Additional information can be found through the DFID website.