Global Challenges Research Fund

The cross-government Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) has the potential to help address major global development challenges, but risks being spread too thinly to achieve transformative results.

  1. Status: Completed
  2. Published: 12 September 2017
  3. Type: Rapid review
  4. Subject: Research, UK aid funds
  5. Assessment: Unrated
  6. Lead commissioner: Tina Fahm

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Review

This review was published in September 2017. As a rapid review, it is not scored, but ICAI made four recommendations. Overall, this review found that the cross-government Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) has the potential to help address major global development challenges, but risks being spread too thinly to achieve transformative results.

Findings

ICAI’s review found that the fund had begun to innovate in useful ways, particularly by promoting interdisciplinary work on complex challenges such as non-communicable diseases and forced displacement.

However it found that aspects of the fund’s strategy, governance arrangements, and procedures were not yet clear or strong enough, and called on it to improve its systems in order to deliver its objectives more effectively, and achieve value for money.

It praised the GCRF for its proactive approach to working with research partners – such as universities – in developing countries, but said it should be clearer about its aims in doing so and consider a more targeted approach to these partnerships.

The review found that the GCRF needs more focused objectives to achieve the transformative research impact it aspires to, as the current approach has resulted in a scattered portfolio of research projects.

ICAI said that while the practical applications from the research may take time to emerge, the fund should do more to build linkages between researchers and those who will make use of or benefit from its work.

The review called on BEIS and DFID to look into whether the funding conditions of the GCRF are consistent with the government’s commitment not to tie UK aid. And it found that processes for assuring the eligibility of some parts of GCRF funding to be counted as aid were inadequate.

Recommendations

Based on this review ICAI made the following recommendations:

  1. To increase its prospects of achieving transformative research impact, the GCRF should develop a more deliberate strategy that encourages a concentration of research portfolios around high-priority global development challenges, with a stronger orientation towards development impact.
  2. The GCRF should develop clearer priorities and approaches to partnering with research institutions in the global South.
  3. BEIS should develop a results framework for assessing the overall performance, impact and value for money of the GCRF portfolio, drawing on DFID’s guidelines on value for money in research and evidence programming.
  4. With the increase in investment in development research across the UK government, the responsible departments should put in place a standing coordination body to clarify roles and responsibilities, avoid duplication and overlap, and facilitate the exchange of learning.

 

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Timeline

Approach

Published 22 May 2017

Evidence gathering

Complete

Review publication

Published 12 September 2017

Government response

Published 30 October 2017

Parliamentary scrutiny

IDC hearing 6 December 2017

ICAI follow-up

Published 18 July 2019