Global challenges

With over £7 million of Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funding secured so far, our co-produced projects are helping people respond to emergencies and plan for the future. Together with our partners from across the globe, we’re changing the world for good.

• HIV, menopause and musculoskeletal health
  Understanding the impact of HIV infection and menopause on the musculoskeletal health of African women.
• COVID-19 and the 'forced culture change' in higher education
  Our research captures the lives and views of those working in higher education during the recent mass online migration.
• International student mobility and climate change
  Estimating the environmental costs associated with the internationalisation of higher education.
• Improving scientific understanding of learning
  Our research is incorporating neuroscientific understanding into educational theory and practice.
• Helping students from rural communities in South Africa to access and succeed in higher education
  Supporting changes in institutional practice and national policy to widen participation in higher education for under-represented and marginalised groups in Southern Africa.
• Strengthening teaching and learning in schools in Tanzania and Rwanda
  Our research is strengthening English-medium school education in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Colombian truth commission and educators using research to build peace
  Research into how truth commissions have worked with education around the world informs approach of Colombian truth commission as they work to recover from decades of conflict.
• Changing public understanding of league tables
  Our improved school performance measure is reframing school accountability policy debates.
• Schools as shared spaces
  Promote community relations in school classrooms through research informed practice.
• Improving veterinary prospects with a global approach to professional development
  Hundreds of trainees and practicing vets are benefiting from initiatives undertaken by Bristol Vet School’s clinical skills team, including workshops delivered around the world, innovative approaches to developing animal models and open access knowledge systems.
• How academia informs migration policy and data development
  The need to improve knowledge and understanding of migration data is now acknowledged globally to be essential for informing and challenging policies on migration and asylum and to encourage balanced debate.
• Driving responsible use of antimicrobials
  Researchers, practitioners and industry bodies across the food chain successfully combined forces for policy and practitioner changes in antimicrobial use on farms and in veterinary practices.
• Helping East Africa get earthquake-ready
  It’s taking tens of millions of years, but the African continent is splitting in two. As plates slowly shift, the threat of major earthquakes rises too.
• Could disappearing glaciers threaten food security?
  Historians don’t usually find themselves climbing glaciers 3,500 metres above sea level, but that’s just what Dr Dan Haines has been doing in Himalayan Nepal.
• Ensuring Bhutan stays happy – and safe
  Unlike its neighbours, Bhutan hasn’t experienced a major earthquake for some while. But is the clock ticking?
• Promoting educational equity in Chilean schools
  In a country of widespread inequality, good education can help close the gap. But first, we need to decide what we mean by “good”.
• Learning what longer life means for kids with HIV in Africa
  Antiretroviral therapy greatly improves survival rates for HIV-positive people - but with this success come pressing new challenges.
• Pinpointing poverty in Latin America
  There are 170 million people living in poverty in Latin America – but we don’t know exactly where, or even why.
• Understanding the cost of war on dryland environments
  If you watch the news and wonder how wars impact environments and the people living in them, you’ll recognise the importance of this project.
• Protecting Nepal’s next generation from earthquakes
  The devastation caused by the 2015 earthquake was immense: 9,000 lives lost, 3.5 million people left homeless, and entire neighbourhoods flattened. How do we stop that happening again?
• Reducing suicide risk in Sri Lanka
  More people survive suicide in Sri Lanka than ever before – but there’s no let-up in the number of people attempting it.
• Improving prospects for people with kidney disease
  It’s rare in the UK, so you may not have heard of nephrotic syndrome, but in low-to-middle income countries it’s fatally under-recognised and under-resourced.