ABSTRACT
The UK government’s £1.5 billion Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) launched in 2016 supports ‘cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries’ and represents a major research shift in UK research. It emphasises ‘challenge-led interdisciplinary research and strengthening research capacity within both the UK and developing countries’ (RCUK, 2017). GCRF’s significance, reflected in its share of the total government R and D budget of £4.7 billion annually (BIS, 2017), is evident in Figure 2.1. GCRF, as part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment, is monitored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). ODA-funded activities aim to promote long-term sustainable growth in developing countries (RCUK, 2017). UK research councils have previously funded transdisciplinary research that addressed these challenges, such as Earthquakes without Frontiers (EwF). This has never been on the scale now envisaged.
