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Ocean Country Partnership Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) supports countries to manage the marine environment more sustainably, including by strengthening marine science expertise, developing science-based policy and management tools and creating educational resources for coastal communities. The programme is funded through official development assistance (ODA) as part of the UK’s £500 million Blue Planet Fund. Through the OCPP, the UK government partners with ODA-eligible countries to deliver positive impacts for coastal communities that depend on healthy marine ecosystems. Bilateral partnerships under the OCPP are primarily delivered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), agencies of the UK government that possess unique expertise in marine science and management. The OCPP also funds two international initiatives that align with its aims and help to develop global public goods, the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) and the Friends of Ocean Action (FOA). GOAP is a global, multi-stakeholder partnership established to enable countries and other stakeholders to effectively measure and manage progress towards sustainable ocean development. FOA is a platform hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, which brings together ocean leaders from a wide range of sectors to encourage action and investment into sustainable ocean projects. GOAP and FOA are both strategic partners of the OCPP, and are funded by the Blue Planet Fund (BPF). They do however remain independent organisations from OCPP, BPF, and Defra. Their work, and its intended outcomes and impacts, are strategically aligned with the OCPP and complement its programming in bilateral partnerships. GOAP and FOA were originally developed as separate business cases under the BPF, then in 2022 introduced as integrated components under OCPP to provide a clearer overall BPF offer to recipient countries. The investment to GOAP supports ODA-eligible countries to develop 'ocean accounts' to more accurately and comprehensively capture data on the natural capital assets contained within their oceans. Using this data - and through further technical, advisory, and capacity building support - GOAP aims to ensure that biodiversity is valued and integrated into policy making, decision making, and infrastructure investments in these countries, resulting in the inclusive and sustainable use and management of the ocean. An initial investment of £1million was awarded to GOAP in FY 2021/2. Following good performance in year one, a further £6million of investment was awarded, split evenly over FY's 2022/3, 23/4, and 24/5; giving a total of £7million. From December 2023, following evidence of strong value for money, this investment has since been uplifted to a total of £14.2million, involving new and expanded scope for certain activities, as well as extending the strategic partnership into FY 2025/6. FOA is a multi-stakeholder platform hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, which brings together ocean leaders from a wide range of sectors to encourage action and investment into sustainable ocean projects. FOA, working closely with the High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy, aims to mobilise ocean leaders to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. Through OCPP the investment supports pillars of FOA's work that strategically align with OCPP's own outcomes. There was an initial investment of £1million to FOA in FY 2021/2. After FOA performed well against investment and performance criteria in year one, a further investment of £2million was awarded in both FY's 2022/3 and 2023/4; rounding total investment for FOA to £5million.
Darwin Initiative
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Darwin Initiative is the UK’s flagship international challenge fund for biodiversity conversation and poverty reduction, established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The Darwin Initiative is a grant scheme working on projects that aim to slow, halt, or reverse the rates of biodiversity loss and degradation, with associated reductions in multidimensional poverty. To date, the Darwin Initiative has awarded more than £195m to over 1,280 projects in 159 countries to enhance the capability and capacity of national and local stakeholders to deliver biodiversity conservation and multidimensional poverty reduction outcomes in low and middle-income countries. More information at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-darwin-initiative. This page contains information about Rounds 27 onwards. For information about Rounds 1 to 26, please see the Darwin Initiative website -https://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/
Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a widespread and lucrative criminal activity causing major global environmental and social harm. The IWT has been estimated to be worth up to £17 billion a year. Nearly 6,000 different species of fauna and flora are impacted, with almost every country in the world playing a role in the illicit trade. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal trade of wildlife products and is a long-standing leader in efforts to eradicate the IWT. Defra manages the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, which is a competitive grants scheme with the objective of tackling IWT and, in doing so, contributing to sustainable development in developing countries. Projects funded under the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund address one, or more, of the following themes: • Developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by IWT, • Strengthening law enforcement, • Ensuring effective legal frameworks, • Reducing demand for IWT products. By 2023 over £51 million has been committed to 157 projects since the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund was established in 2013. This page contains information about Rounds 7 onwards. For information about Rounds 1 to 6, please see the IWTCF website -https://iwt.challengefund.org.uk/
Core - International Collaboration Awards
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
International Collaboration Awards enable outstanding researchers in the UK to partner with the best research groups in developing countries on projects that address issues faced by developing countries.
Resilient and Equitable Nature-based Pathways in Southern African Rangelands (REPAiR)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Rangelands cover over half of the world's land surface, play a vital role in carbon sequestration, support biodiversity, supply freshwater, and sustain billions of livelihoods based on extensive livestock production globally. While there are efforts to extend Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in rangelands, standard approaches often carry assumptions of ecological stability and linear successional dynamics which do not align with the extreme 'non-equilibrium' dynamics characteristic of many rangeland environments, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. To date, only limited research addresses the suitability and feasibility of NbS to strengthen resilience in the face of climate change in the context of communal governance and in productive non-equilibrium socio-ecological systems. New evidence, knowledge and practical tools are therefore needed for NbS to be successful in such contexts.
Piloting Basic Solar Energy Grants for Equitable Access to Energy
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Like many emerging markets, South Africa has a fast-growing urban population, resulting in the proliferation of informal settlements on land often unsuitable for grid electrification. Nevertheless, under South African law, municipalities have a legal obligation to provide basic services, including energy, to all households but prioritising the poor. While existing national policies do allow for alternative (off-grid) energy services, these policies were not initially intended for urban informal settlements and are thus not fit for that demographic. A number of municipalities are thus exploring how to develop their own policies to meet this need. For example, the City of Cape Town is considering implementing a grant for eligible low-income households that do not have grid electricity. The monthly grant could be put toward an energy service of each household's choice. An advantage of such a grant is that it would provide affordable and varied options for consumers, and would stimulate innovation and competition amongst potential service-providers. Before implementing such a policy the city is seeking evidence to help establish an optimal grant-value that ensures a high level of inclusivity. iShack and Zonke Energy have been providing off-grid solar energy services (via Solar Home Systems and Solar-Towers, respectively) for a number of years in various informal settlements around Cape Town. They have tested a range of financial and operating models, and have shown conclusively that for the South African informal settlement context, private enterprise alone cannot fill the gap of energy access due to a lack of affordability. Thus, some form of state support is needed. In this project a Basic Energy Grant (funded by Energy Catalyst Round 10) will be implemented in one large community in order to demonstrate its effect on inclusivity, as well as build the case for viable business models. iShack and Zonke will collaborate to provide a choice of basic solar energy services. The project will run for two years, during which each participating household will have the benefit of the grant, which they can use towards the purchase of a Solar Home System or access to Solar-Tower electricity. A programmatic community engagement element will support a co-productive relationship with the community as well as promote energy democracy and capacity building, gender equality and inclusivity. Progress and outcomes will be monitored by Future Advisory Ltd who will conduct communications to disseminate the results of the pilot to relevant stakeholders, in particular to municipalities.
Weather & Climate Service Partnership (WCSSP) South Africa - Met Office
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative project between meteorological services in South Africa and UK focusing on capacity building for improved weather and climate services, enabling mitigation of risk from extreme weather events. This includes development of modelling capability for enhanced early weather warnings and a capacity building training programme for severe weather forecasting.
Weather & Climate Service Partnership (WCSSP) South Africa - Calls - tender
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative project between meteorological services in South Africa and UK focusing on capacity building for improved weather and climate services, enabling mitigation of risk from extreme weather events. This includes development of modelling capability for enhanced early weather warnings and a capacity building training programme for severe weather forecasting.
Caregiver influences on child psychological adjustment following trauma; a longitudinal study of a high adversity South African population
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
"Children who experience very frightening or traumatic events (such as car accidents, assaults, serious injuries) are vulnerable to developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological difficulties following their experiences. Such problems can be extremely distressing, and affect a significant proportion of trauma exposed children. One factor that has the potential to influence such outcomes is the informal support that children receive from their parents/caregivers posttrauma. In research we have conducted in the UK, we found that certain aspects of caregiver responses can have an impact upon children's psychological recovery following trauma. In particular, where caregivers encourage ways of coping in children that allow them to avoid being reminded of the trauma, and/or talk to children about what happened in a way that emphasizes high levels of threat associated with the trauma, children are more likely to experience persistent symptoms of PTSD. These caregiver responses may influence child symptoms as a consequence of children themselves then making more negative appraisals in relation to what happened, and by influencing child coping behaviours. We propose to extend our UK work to the study of a high adversity international population. To date, only a small proportion of PTSD research has been conducted in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). This omission is important, as LMIC children may be particularly vulnerable to trauma exposure for a variety of reasons (e.g., poverty, crime, regional conflict). It is essential to establish whether psychological and social processes that have been linked to child PTSD in lower risk settings still apply in contexts where levels of ongoing threat and the likelihood of exposure to recurrent traumas are high. In particular, although we know that caregiver support is a key predictor of child psychological recovery following trauma in high income countries, our understanding of the elements of support that can help children from high adversity, lower income contexts is almost non-existent. This is important, as such children are almost certain to rely on such informal support following trauma exposure, due to limited access to formal psychological services. To address this critical gap in our knowledge, we plan to study the psychosocial factors that contribute to PTSD in a group of children (aged 8-16 years) from a deprived community in South Africa, in which rates of serious trauma exposure are extremely high. We will recruit 250 children who have experienced trauma within 2 weeks following the event. We measure how caregivers provide support, as well as children's initial levels of symptoms. We will then follow-up children and caregivers 3 months and 6 months later, measuring their PTSD symptoms. We will examine whether there are particular elements of caregiver support in the aftermath of trauma that are associated with higher or lower levels of symptoms in children further down the line. We we also will test whether caregiver influences operate via changing key psychological processes (trauma appraisals, coping) in the child, and will take account of caregivers' own trauma-related distress in our study. In addition to helping us to understand what kind of social support is best for children who experience trauma, our project will provide much needed information about the development of PTSD in children from high adversity, low income communities. This is important: at the moment we are lacking even basic information about risk of PTSD in the acute aftermath of trauma among such children, including the proportion who will initially develop this disorder following trauma, the window of time during which children may recover naturally following the event, and the proportion likely to experience persistent disorder and need intervention. This is a major barrier to developing screening and intervention programmes, which our study will be able to address. " COVID-19
SAMRC-run UK South Africa call on Co-Infections with Non-Communicable Diseases
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Three research projects have been supported focusing on the interaction of infectious diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis with noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. Projects will seek to understand how diseases interact and will develop new insights into the patterns and determinants of multimorbidity in South Africa. This activity is led and delivered by SAMRC, who will issue research grants that are led by South African investigators with UK-based co-investigators and the opportunity to involve coinvestigators across Africa. Working in this way will promote equitable partnerships within the projects and ensure that the research funding delivers on the priorities of the primary beneficiary country involved (South Africa) as well as the possibility to deliver on the priorities of other beneficiary countries across Africa.
Decentering ableism in gender based violence (GBV) research using co-creative arts-based approaches
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This project will research GBV against PWD in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) in South Africa (SA) using survivor and disabilities-centred methods. SA was selected as it has one of the highest levels of GBV outside war zones, and KZN-province is where this violence is most endemic. GBV affecting PWD in SA is particularly acute due to racial injustice, deepened inequality, and marginalisation, all exacerbated by COVID-19.
Complex intervention to optimise adolescent BMI pre-conception to address the double burden of malnutrition: A RCT in rural and urban South Africa
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC Joint Global Health Trial on how to best to intervene working with community health workers to improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls in South Africa
Improving the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based policies: A life course approach to reducing diet-related NCDs in adolescents
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
People, world-wide, are increasingly becoming overweight or obese (OO), even children. Being overweight or obese is a serious health concern and can lead to many diseases (called non-communicable diseases or NCDs) which reduce the quality of one's life or even untimely death. Many of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. One important contributor to overweight and obesity is eating highly processed foods, often termed 'junk food'. Children who are OO are more vulnerable to developing NCD's and this continues into later in life. Therefore, the World Health Organisation, and other organisations concerned with health, believe that governments should prioritise policies that prevent young people become OO. In South Africa, the rate of OO amongst children is high compared to countries with similar economic circumstances. Indeed, South African children are at risk of developing high blood pressure or diabetes during childhood and numerous NCD's later in life. While the South African government has taken steps to improve children's health through a sugary beverage tax, and limiting the salt content of food, the problem persists. This shows that food policies are currently not working as they should. It seems that there is a gap in the implementation of those policies. It is therefore important to investigate the nature of this gap. This study will look at various aspects of South African food policies aimed at decreasing NCD's, to identify the problem, particularly as they effect children aged 10-14 years old and 15-19 years old in an urban and rural province and make recommendations to resolve these gaps. The study will be conducted over four years (2023-2027), using an existing implementation research tool called the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (EPIS) framework, which has four phases: Phase 1 - Exploration: We will review all South African policies aimed at improving diets and in particular those of children. Phase 2 - Preparation: We will engage with children, policy makers and enforcers as well as parents and other people with an interest to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing policies, and whether they are being implemented as they should be. Phase 3 - Implementation: We will then develop intervention strategies to overcome identified weaknesses or harness existing strengths. We will cost these strategies and then with all the key stakeholders rank them in order of priority. Phase 4 - Sustainability: Finally, we will consider whether these strategies have the potential to be implemented in the long term. The main outcome of the study is a costed and prioritised list of interventions that will decrease OO of adolescents and decrease NCDs in South Africa.
Unravelling the mechanisms of neurological damage during cryptococcal infection of the brain
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC ARL award, This research will fill the existing knowledge gap on how the brain is injured in cryptococcal meningitis. This models and methods would then serve as a platform for studying the mechanisms of other infections of the Central Nervous System that are caused by bacteria, parasites and viruses to inform the development of the much-needed new therapies.
A gut feeling: How can gastrointestinal bacterial infections alter female reproductive tract immunity and control of sexually transmitted infections
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC ARL award to investigate the effects of a remote GI bacterial infection on Female reproductive tract immunity, how this affects control of common Sexual Transmitted Infections, as well as the effects on fertility
Strengthening the quality of adolescent primary healthcare in South Africa: preliminary work on a complex public health intervention
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC Adolescent Health award in strengthening the quality of adolescent primary healthcare in South Africa: preliminary work on a complex public health intervention
Host-virus interactions in KSHV-related malignancies: evaluating the role of STIP1 as a therapeutic target
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC ARL to investigate how the oncogenic herpesvirus, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), manipulates the function of host cell molecular chaperones to enhance both latent and lytic replication cycles, to foster mutually beneficial collaboration between research groups at the University of Leeds, UK and Rhodes University, South Africa
Adapting an evidenced-based intervention to reduce IPV for use among young heterosexual couples in South Africa
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC AGHRB Award to move towards SDG5.2 - eliminate all VAWG - through adapting the evidence-based intervention Stepping Stones and Creating Futures - for delivery to young (18-30) heterosexual couples in urban informal settlements in South Africa thus strengthening its outcomes in a project called Zithandani SSCF (Our Love SSCF).
Neurobiological pathways from trauma exposure to child mental health outcomes in a high adversity South African Birth Cohort
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC NMHB RM 19 Award looking at the neurobiological pathways from trauma exposure to child mental health outcomes in a high adversity South African Birth Cohort
Learning health systems: fostering participatory learning and action to equip rural health workers as change agents for maternal and newborn care.
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
MRC JHSRI l aim is to understand if and how a participatory learning and action (PLA) intervention can improve organisational learning culture amongst rural health workers (HWs) and experiences of person-centred maternal and newborn health (MNH) care amongst women in rural South Africa.