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SMART-SIP+ - Innovative approaches to downstream energy utilisation from solar irrigation pumps in Bangladesh
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Aim of this project is to drive forward a large-scale clean energy transition in rural communities in Bangladesh through the design, development and demonstration of smart energy systems which exploit the excess electricity from Solar Irrigation Pumps (SIPs). Context: People/Place: Bangladesh is ranked 7th in the Climate Risk Index 60% of the population (c.100M people) rely on agriculture as their main income source. Intensification of irrigation practices: Allows an additional rice crop (55% of total) to be grown during the dry season (Jan-May). 6M irrigation pumps are used including 1.2M tube-wells powered by diesel engines consuming 1MT/yr imported diesel, emitting 3MT of CO2 (c.4% of Bangladesh’s annual gross emission) Replacement of diesel pumps with SIPs provides a critical route to reliable distributed clean energy. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), supported by key state organisations, propose a roadmap to deliver 45,000 SIPs replacing 200,000 diesel pumps by 2031. SIPs are sized to provide sufficient water during peak irrigation demand (100-150 days per year), so only 40 to 60% of the potential electricity generation of the panels is required for irrigation. The ADB report estimates that the 45,000 replacement SIPs will produce 480GWH/yr of surplus electricity. The current recommended method for utilisation of excess electricity is export to grid, but this often requires expensive grid extension, connection and metering. Post-harvest storage/ processing of crops: Fruit and vegetable production is c.17MT/yr, but post-harvest losses range from 25-40%, whilst farmers obtain a poor price due to surplus supply during peak seasons. Both can be alleviated by the availability of cold storage facilities; however, these are limited in Bangladesh owing to high capex/ energy costs. Additional processing of cereals, fruit and vegetables can add value and reduce losses (milling, drying, juicing), but require energy. These factors present a clear opportunity to leverage the excess electricity from SIPs and utilise it locally and smartly to support agriculture and rural communities. The challenge is that techno-economically validated pathways to seize this opportunity are currently not available to potential users (farmers), operators, investors and policymakers. To meet this challenge our project has the following objectives: Capture demand and supply requirements around SIP locations and their local communities into a structured knowledge base. Address key questions surrounding the design, sizing, and smart operation of farm-based microgrids powered by SIP systems. Tailor system solutions to unique local conditions. Provide socio-technical, techno-economic and Life Cycle Assessments of proposed solutions. Build Decision Support Systems and physical field testing and demonstration sites to enable investors/ decision makers to explore the nature and scale of the opportunity and drive strategic innovation, investment, and policy. Build capacity, capability, and resilience within rural communities by co-creating and co-delivering solutions that ensure equitable access to energy and economic development opportunities. Ayrton Challenges – Super Efficient Demand/ Smart Delivery/ Smart Energy Systems/ Sustainable Cooling/ Inclusive Energy Applications/ Benefits: Results/lessons from this work will also inform solarisation of the >10M diesel irrigation pumps that are currently operated in other Southern Asian countries. Bangladesh is categorised as a ‘Least Developed Country’. By improving access to local reliable and affordable clean energy this project will promote socio-economic development by enhancing business performance and stimulating growth; and reduce poverty and inequality of farming communities (particularly for women), increasing income and employment opportunities and building capacity and capability.
CHild malnutrition & Adult NCD: Generating Evidence on mechanistic links to inform future policy/practice (CHANGE project)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
GCRF Mech Nutition award To improve future treatment programmes by better understanding how child malnutrition affects the risk of long-term (adult) NCD.
Factors affecting childhood exposures to urban particulates (FACE-UP)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
GCRF Health and Context award looking at factors affecting childhood exposures to urban particulates (FACE-UP) in Indonesia and Nepal
An implementation trial of continuous quality improvement for antenatal syphilis and HIV detection and treatment in Indonesia: The MENJAGA study
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The dual elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis through screening and treatment of pregnant women has been identified as a global public health priority. Indonesia has set an ambitious EMTCT target of 2030. Currently, only 27% of pregnant women are tested for HIV and 1% for syphilis (using a mixture of rapid tests and laboratory-based testing), this is despite 98% of pregnant women attending antenatal care at least once during pregnancy. Moreover, only 48% of those testing positive for HIV and 30% for syphilis receive treatment. This poses a formidable challenge and is recognised as one of the most significant gaps in antenatal care in Indonesia. Persistent barriers to antenatal screening for HIV/syphilis include (but are not restricted to): limited awareness among health workers of the need for universal screening; some women are fearful of the test; lack of local standard operating procedures at the clinic level; supply chain gaps in tests and treatments; problems with the referral processes; and difficulties tracking women as they move across the health system. Context-specific interventions to better support the integration of HIV and syphilis testing and treatment into the Antenatal care (ANC) platform are urgently needed in Indonesia. Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), which involves local ANC teams systematically collecting and reflecting on local data to inform the design and implementation of service delivery, has been effectively used to strengthen ANC services in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries. This approach holds considerable promise for Indonesia, a highly populous and diverse country where a 'one size fits all' approach to the delivery of quality ANC rarely applies. Using a cluster-randomised design, we will evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, acceptability, fidelity and reach of a multi-faceted CQI intervention to improve antenatal testing and treatment of HIV and syphilis in public and private ANC clinics in 6 districts across 3 Provinces (West Java, South Sumatra and South Kalimantan). This 3-year multi-disciplinary study will involve clinicians, epidemiologists, economists, social scientists, health services researchers and policy-makers from the Indonesian Ministry of Health (research partner), the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Universitas of Gadjah Mada, the University of Sebelas Maret and the Kirby Institute. A range of other stakeholders will be involved throughout the study (e.g. patient advocacy groups; implementing agencies; specialist professional associations; clinics and ANC services) to assess the appropriateness and acceptability of the intervention and barriers and facilitators to scale up. This research has the potential to contribute significantly to improved maternal and child health in Indonesia while also strengthening the underlying health system.
Psychological, social & biological predictors of child mental health and development: shared and distinctive risk and protective factors in UK & India
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
WHO figures estimate mental health problems affect 12.8% of children in India, which equates to 60 million children. There is an urgent need for culturally sensitive longitudinal studies of community samples starting in pregnancy, designed to examine the earliest origins of child mental health problems to optimally inform the development of new and early interventions. Our study aims to do this in India and the UK. Research in western settings suggest that child mental health problems arise from a complicated mix of social, psychological and biological influences, in which key factors probably include, prenatal stress, early infant temperament, and harsh parenting as risks, and warm parenting as protective factors. There is now good evidence that individual variations and environmental exposures in early life contribute to risk for mental health problems in later childhood and beyond. However, previous research has been conducted almost exclusively in countries with Westernised standards of medical care and family arrangements, and where additional risks such as low birth weight and under-nutrition are rare. The aims of the proposed research are to compare early risk and protective factors for childhood mental health problems in UK and India to identify those that are common to Western and South Asian populations and those that are distinctive. We propose to follow up around 741 families of children in the Bangalore Child Health and Development study (BCHADS) who are living in the urban slums of Bangalore city, at age 4.5 years and age 7 years. We will compare the information we gather on these children's lives to that of the children taking part in our UK Wirral Child Health and Development Study (already collected). In both studies we have two rich data sets with parallel measures of risk and protective factors for child mental health outcomes from pregnancy onwards, including age 8-10 wks, 6 months, 14 months, 2 years, 4 years and 7 years of age. We have gathered detailed repeated measurement of key likely 'shared risks' and associated 'mechanisms' for conferring risk (e.g., gene activity, stress reactivity) and these include measures of early life stress, social support, poverty and economic adversity, early temperament, and caregiving (touch, interaction quality, parenting quality), cognitive and physical development. We will also assess risk and protective factors that may be 'distinctive' or particularly relevant to the South Asian setting: maternal nutrition in pregnancy, early immune function and gender discrimination associated with cultural favouring of the male child, and the practice of shared-caregiving as opposed to primary maternal rearing in Western societies. We also aim to advance cross-cultural measurement methods and develop new culturally sensitive measures of gender discrimination and the 'shared caregiving' parenting environment in India. This work will aid clinicians and researchers to refine their measurements in clinical practice and be able to conduct more reliable research when trying to combine data from multiple cohorts. Finally, this is a joint UK-Indian study and together we will run a series of training events to build capacity and share expertise in conducting longitudinal cohort studies, sampling and retention, measurement issues, data management and state of the art statistical methods needed in longitudinal analysis of complex data sets.
Moving IMPACT: Integrated Means to Power Agriculture, Clean Cooking and Transportation
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Clean energy access will be key for achieving the global development goals; it has clear links to health, education, water access, etc... Many regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, have low electricity access today. Scalability, cost-effectiveness and abundance of solar irradiance make solar the best technology for this endeavour. Solar Home Systems (SHS) have successfully provided basic services like lighting and mobile phone charging to many communities. However, SHS offer low power output, which limits their ability to support more energy-intensive applications such as electric cooking. Electric stoves, which could significantly reduce reliance on wood stoves, offer health and environmental benefits but require much more power than what SHS can provide. Connecting multiple SHS to form a larger grid has been considered but is often impractical due to high costs and limited scalability. Instead, community-scale solar mini-grids, with larger generation and storage, present a viable alternative. These mini-grids can be designed to support household cooking and industrial and agricultural uses such as grain milling and cooling. They can also provide power for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, an important development in many African cities where motorbike taxis are common. Electric motorbikes offer a cleaner alternative to fuel-powered engines but require reliable and substantial power sources for charging. Integrating mini-grids with local distribution networks can enhance their efficiency and reliability. By connecting mini-grids to these networks, they can share resources and provide power during peak demand times or when the main grid is down. This integration can benefit both the mini-grids and the distribution system, creating a more resilient energy network. The installation of solar panels requires a significant land area, which can conflict with agricultural activities and conservation efforts. However, solar panels can power agricultural equipment like water pumps and with appropriate co-design (agrivoltaics) the panels can provide shade and support soil temperature control and water conservation. Additionally, the revenue from mini-grid services can support local farmers and enhance their economic stability. Our project will explore how mini-grids with EV charging infrastructure for small vehicles can be integrated into agricultural areas and support various community needs. We will develop geographical models to identify optimal locations for these mini-grids and evaluate how different technologies and applications can be combined. Our research team, with expertise in infrastructure planning, political geography, and electrical engineering, will focus on how mini-grids can interact with local distribution networks to maximize their benefits. We plan to test these concepts in real-world settings by deploying a small set of EVs and suitable charging infrastructure. The interaction with the community, industrial developers and national regulators based in Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya will provide steering and inform the development of models and systems required in our work. The project is led by Imperial College London with a consortium of researchers from the University of Strathmore (Kenya), University of Energy and Natural Resources of Ghana, the University of Leeds, the University of Rwanda, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the Kigali Centre for Collaborative Research (Rwanda).
An inter-disciplinary approach to understanding the contribution of household flooring to disease burden in rural Kenya
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Access to adequate, safe and affordable housing plays a fundamental role in human health. This includes thorough limits our exposure to infectious diseases such as those that cause diarrhoea, which remains a leading cause of death in children under five. Conventional approaches to reducing environmental exposure to faecal pathogens include ensuring universal access to safe water and basic sanitation. Recent evidence has suggested that this alone may be insufficient to reduce the high levels of environmental contamination seen in poor rural communities, and that transformative cross-sectoral approaches will be required to see real impacts in child health. For example, these approaches fail to address the fact that most poor rural homes have rudimentary (earth, sand or dirt) floors that are difficult to sanitise, providing an ideal environment for the survival of faecal pathogens and other parasites. These floors can also host parasitic infections including intestinal nematodes and sand fleas, both of which are responsible for considerable morbidity and poor quality of life. We propose to examine flooring and its impact on enteric and parasitic diseases in three culturally and environmentally diverse settings in Kenya, and aim to address two related questions: 1. What is the importance of household flooring as a driver of enteric and parasitic infection risk in rural communities, and does this vary across wider social and environmental contexts? 2. Can infection risk be mitigated by replacing existing rudimentary (earth, sand or dirt) floors with improved (sealed, washable and durable) materials, and what additional behaviour changes are required to ensure impact? We expect that successful installation and ongoing maintenance of improved flooring will reduce the transmission of enteric and parasitic infections, by preventing direct exposure and through an intermediate effect of improved domestic hygiene. This will however be influenced by local context. A priority in each setting will therefore be to explore the interplay between domestic flooring, water and sanitation infrastructure, domestic hygiene behaviours, and the wider socio-cultural and environmental context. Our planned approach involves comprehensive formative research, intervention development conducted in collaborative partnership with recipient communities and key stakeholders, and then implementation trials to test the effects, feasibility and acceptability of the resulting intervention. We will assess the impact of the intervention on a range of child health outcomes, including prevalence of enteric and intestinal worm infections, prevalence of tungiasis, and incidence of gastrointestinal illness. We will also monitor levels of environmental contamination, and explore the impact of the intervention on domestic routines and self-reported wellness. During implementation, we will work with recipients and stakeholders at community, regional and national level to assess the extent to which interventions are acceptable to target communities, feasible given existing resource constraints, and can be scaled-up across Kenya and elsewhere. This includes work undertaken to understand options for scale-up should the intervention prove successful. This study is the first of its kind to comprehensively assess feasibility and effects of combining improved flooring technologies with tailored behaviour change programming on a wide range of parasitic and enteric outcomes. In doing so, we aim to provide important policy and technical guidance on the impact and effectiveness of new transformative approaches to community health. This is an important first step towards the establishment of transformative, community-driven and cross-sectoral approaches to building out water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases.
Scalable TRansdiagnostic Early Assessment of Mental Health (STREAM)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Worldwide, over 250 million children are at risk of not obtaining their developmental potential due to exposure to adverse circumstances. India and Malawi house some of the most disadvantaged populations in the world, with over 10% of all children aged 2 to 9 years estimated to have neurodevelopmental disorders. However, social and economic barriers to access qualified health personnel mean that most of these children do not receive any assessment of neurodevelopment or a clinical diagnosis when needed. Moreover, many parents are unaware of developmental milestones, so clinical opinion is sought only when symptoms become more pronounced and begin to impact daily life with a lost opportunity for early interventions. This avoidable delay is an unfolding tragedy in light of evidence showing that frontline worker delivered interventions can lead to better behavioural and social outcomes and improve long term developmental trajectories. Scalable methods to assess child neurodevelopment and mental health would promote early referral to specialist facilities, ultimately connecting families with affordable, community-based interventions. Directly measuring neurodevelopment allows us to identify the most vulnerable children as early as possible, allowing limited resources to be focused on those most likely to benefit from preventive approaches. Taken together, focusing on brain development in early childhood is critical to revolutionising global mental health of young children. We will realise this goal by developing a Scalable Transdiagnostic Assessment of Mental Health (STREAM), a mobile platform usable in the home or in a routine health facility by non-specialist workers. STREAM will be delivered on a tablet PC and will collect different types of data from 4000 children in India and Malawi. First, parents will be asked simple questions about their child's everyday behaviour, based on established questionnaires that have been validated in low income settings. Second, gamified tasks designed to measure motor, social, and cognitive abilities will be administered on the tablet. Additionally, novel low-cost eye-tracking technology on the same tablet PC will be used to monitor the child's eye movements in simple tasks, such as those assessing preference for social versus non-social images, and measuring how quickly attention shifts to new objects appearing on the screen. Finally, a segment of parent and child interaction will be recorded using the inbuilt camera, and used to code for signs of atypical behaviour. This combination of multiple measures will provide independent channels of data collected on a single platform, significantly improving on current assessment methods that often rely on one technique and expensive, highly skilled but scarce human resources. STREAM will be designed such that it will require minimal training to be administered by non-specialist workers in low and middle income countries, thereby promoting task-sharing, a concept endorsed by the World Health Organization to reach wider populations. This task-sharing approach reduces the burden on the small number of highly-skilled mental-health and child development professionals in these low resource settings. STREAM can also help develop community awareness and, in the longer term, address the barrier of low demand for services in these areas. The development and application of the STREAM platform involves collaborations across the breadth of basic and applied sciences. Our network comprising clinicians, neuroscientists, public health specialists and data scientists spread across UK, India and Malawi is optimally suited to leading this challenge because of our combined expertise deploying novel technologies to measure early childhood neurodevelopment in low-resource settings.
GCRF Action against Stunting Hub
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The global community aims to decrease the number of stunted children under five by 40% by 2025. While targeted and specific, we know that this is presently unachievable. Part of the problem is that over the last three decades, the search for the 'silver bullet' or the specific driver, which if addressed could solve this intractable problem, has narrowed praxis. This is not to say that gains have not been made, but rather our efforts have not been entirely impactful. While substantial disciplinary advances have occurred, often they have not been joined-up. And while systematic reviews abound, pan-disciplinary understandings, do not. Hence, child stunting is an intractable problem, waiting for a unified solution. If we perceive child under-nutrition as a mosaic, we have knowledge of many of the individual elements. For example, biological advances demonstrate there is an identifiable 'epigenetic signature' of stunting. Children who are stunted also have immature gut micro-biomes and we also know a large proportion of the global malnutrition burden is caused (either directly or indirectly), by infectious agents ranging from viruses and bacteria to protozoa and helminths. Food-borne toxins also impact stunting. Equally, we know a range of elements can help to prevent stunting from animal source Foods (ASF) to behavioural elements from dietary choices to feeding practices to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Yet overall, it may be argued that we are missing the shape and structure of the mosaic and the synergies between the component parts. In many quarters, the literature on child under-nutrition is viewed as 'siloed' and non-relational (Perkins et al., 2017). But equally importantly, 'integrated' nutritional programmes have often not had the expected impacts. Herein lies the problem and the related solution: we urgently need to understand the 'cascade' of factors driving child stunting and the synergies and inter-relationship between drivers. And equally importantly, we need to better understand the 'tipping points' or the critical points along this cascade where healthy linear growth diverges to slow or no growth. To do this, we propose to transform our exploration of child under-nutrition from the component parts to the 'whole child'. Where the biological, social, environmental and behavioural context in which stunting occurs is understood in its entirety and where the strength and directionality of these drivers, inform related interventions. Based on this joined-up approach, we will explore the ability of a range of child-centred interventions to disrupt the cascade of factors that inhibit the ability of a child to grow. These actions and outcomes will then form the basis of a decision-making platform to enable users to identify the ex-ante and ex-post impacts of potential interventions. Embedded in this process, however, is a values-based approach that ensures that from the outset, our research directly connects to and betters the lives of the children, families and communities involved. We will work across three countries: India, Indonesia and Senegal in over 50 communities. We aim to decrease child stunting by up to 10% our communities. Finally, to enhance our impact and legacy our Hub, we will engage a range of end-users in both our outputs and in the wider 'whole child' approach. We will support new regional platforms on maternal and child nutrition proposed by UNICEF linking the work of FAO/The World Bank/WHO at the country-level. We will also engage our network of over 100 civil society organizations in our findings. Over the course of the project, we expect to positively impact the lives of up to 1 million children.
European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is a public–public partnership between institutions mandated by national governments in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, and supported by the European Union.
Generation Malawi: A study of family, maternal and childhood mental health
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
A lack of research training, resources, infrastructure and data in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) greatly limits their ability to conduct studies of common mental health conditions. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa generally and in Malawi specifically, where sparse mental health care alone limits not only clinical research capacity, but also the ability to attract inward investment. In a partnership between UK and Malawian institutions, we propose to directly address this challenge by building clinical research capacity through the coordinated appointment of new researchers and research assistants, a programme of education and dissemination, and the development of a population mental health dataset focussed on an area of great unmet need - the mental heath of mothers and their children. After a period of piloting our research assessments and obtaining the necessary approvals, we will recruit 5000 mothers prior to delivery of their child from antenatal clinics in Lilongwe and Karonga districts, selected to represent urban and rural populations respectively. We will assess the mental health of mothers before and after birth, and the mental health of their spouses and other family members with a view to identifying the major risk factors for mental health disorders and mitigating variables that promote resilience. We will then examine the impact of maternal and, where possible, paternal mental health on the neurodevelopment of their offspring. In addition to creating new and highly valuable data, we will also create the bioresources needed for future genetics and 'omics based research. We believe this is essential to prevent the current imbalance in genetic research favouring rich countries of predominantly European ancestries leading to greater entrenchment of global health inequalities. As part of the proposed work, we will develop internationally competitive research capacity and datasets in Malawi, augment standard of care treatment, develop research training and the availability of affordable and effective interventions for depression and other common mental disorders, such as the "Friendship Bench" intervention. Our research will be multidisciplinary, involving experts from psychiatry, clinical psychology, nursing, reproductive and child health, and social sciences in both UK and Malawi. Throughout the project, we will carefully monitor our progress and impact on the participants and their communities. The project, if funded, will lead to a step change in mental health research capacity in Malawi, paving the way for new inward investment and the development of evidence based interventions and policies.
Co-Designing Clean Energy for Rural Africa with Service Innovations and Digital Twins (CREDiT)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
CREDiT project aims to demonstrate the potential of solar energy in rural, off-grid African communities through Participatory Technology Development (PTD) and Service-Oriented Business Models, supported by Digital Twin (DT) platforms. The project focuses on three communities facing significant challenges: Mayungu Beach in Kilifi, Kenya; an agricultural village near Kasinthula, Malawi; and an agricultural college community in Chipembi, Zambia. By implementing off-grid solar mini-grids in these areas, the project seeks to generate interdisciplinary knowledge, provide community training, and deliver lasting benefits both locally and more broadly. Led by the University of York (UoY), CREDiT collaborates with Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) in Kenya, Coastal and Marine Resource Development (COMRED) in Kenya, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi, and United Church of Zambia University (UCZ). The project is motivated by the 2023 SDG7 progress report, which highlights the persistent challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa’s access to electricity. Despite abundant solar resources, over 567 million individuals in the region still lack access to electricity as of 2021. Existing solar installations often fail to meet community needs due to a lack of context-specific design, economic viability and are often undersized for expected demand, and the necessary human capital for effective operation and maintenance. The challenge of delivering sustainable and appropriate solar energy solutions is both social and technical. It requires the development of technical and business models that are attuned to social conditions. Addressing this challenge necessitates transdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, engineers, social scientists, business and industry partners, local communities, and policy stakeholders. Rural communities in Africa, often the poorest users, are typically priced out of investment opportunities and face significant challenges such as upfront risks, lack of installation and maintenance expertise, and issues with sustainable affordability. Limited community participation in the design and maintenance of solar projects often results in poor social, financial, and environmental outcomes, leading to projects being abandoned shortly after completion. To address these issues, CREDiT focuses on deploying a template for sustainable business models supported by digitally enabled technologies. This approach aims to guide the development and scaling of distributed solar, maximizing technological performance (energy usage and efficiency, predictive maintenance, reduced waste), social impact (clean energy adoption, equitable benefits, appropriate functionality), and organizational effectiveness (ownership, financing, scalable solutions). The project will develop a replicable process supported by digital technology platforms and business models. These platforms will ensure community-level access to energy, delivering affordable, reliable, long-term sustainable, and equitable energy access in rural off-grid communities. Trials will take place in diverse use-cases across Zambia, Malawi, and Kenya. The digital platform will ensure that all stakeholders, including local government agencies and private investors (national/international), have full visibility of energy production, providing the transparency needed to attract off-grid solar investments. Our approach establishes an interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary framework using equitable socio-technical co-design, addressing power dynamics, marginalization, and context-specific knowledge creation by integrating three key perspectives: (1) a digital platform featuring predictive models, IoT sensors, remote monitoring, AI, and cloud-based technologies to support load forecasting, optimal usage, and maintenance; (2) co-produced sustainable business models focused on affordability and equitability; and (3) community resilience and empowerment through skills training, knowledge, and resources, particularly for women, to optimize solar energy use and manage its lifecycle, ensuring future energy expansion.
Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Social Inclusion for a Just Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania (JustGESI)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions recommends incorporating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in any efforts to advance the energy transition.[1] The Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development in Africa advocates for a transition based on social justice and feminist values.[2] The UN Gender and Energy Compact (under the auspices of the SDG7) identifies five outcomes for women to lead, participate in and benefit from a just, sustainable, and inclusive energy transition: increasing women’s access and control over energy resources; incorporating GESI in transition pathways, strategies and regulations; supporting women-owned and led businesses; facilitating women's career advancement in the energy transition; and enhancing the knowledge base to understand processes of exclusion.[3] However, empirical evidence shows a persistent gender and inclusion gap in the energy transition. This gap manifests in the lack of participation of women and gender non-conforming people in the sustainable energy labour force. There is limited knowledge of how gender relations and intersecting forms of social discrimination (such as racism or ableism) reproduce energy injustices in the energy transition. During the last decades, many energy projects have incorporated GESI concerns, for example, collecting gender-disaggregated data or holding single-sex learning sessions. However, such approaches fail to challenge the root causes of discrimination and social inequality. Many projects focus on differences between men and women without questioning the homogeneous, universal categories used to characterise diverse groups and complex experiences of power relations and exclusion. Over-simplifying the relationships between gender relations, discrimination, and access to energy resources leads to decontextualised, inappropriate actions (such as when cookstove improvement programmes make inaccurate assumptions about cooking practices and fuel choices). Such generalisations portray women as passive victims or virtuous stewards in ways that increase their responsibility for delivering collective action without the corresponding rewards (such as when biogas-cooking programmes seek to ‘empower’ women but inadvertently result in additional domestic labour). A GESI-transformative approach to the energy transition requires challenging these types of decisions and practices, which tend to reproduce energy injustices, whatever their intentions. JustGESI will deliver substantive action to advance GESI objectives within the energy transition in Africa, focusing on: How to advance GESI objectives within concrete projects and policy interventions. Identifying and promoting institutional and policy reforms that facilitate GESI objectives. Identifying and delivering forms of capacity building that advance transformative strategies to GESI. This interdisciplinary, international partnership will deliver practical, policy and capacity-building responses through a collaborative programme of work across four countries, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, where our well-established research network has obtained evidence of inclusivity gaps in the energy transition and are already initiating pilot actions to tackle these. The project will address the Ayrton challenge of ‘smart delivery,’ delivering ‘inclusive energy & leave no one behind’ interventions by putting questions of equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the transition to sustainable energy. Simultaneously, the project will address the challenges of ‘super-efficient demand’ and ‘modern cooking services’ by focusing on the delivery of sustainable fuels for cooking. At COP28, world leaders committed to clean cooking for all Africans. However, despite pioneering examples of gender-responsive electric cooking programmes, there is not yet a credible international GESI strategy for clean cooking. [1] https://www.iea.org/programmes/people-centred-clean-energy-transitions [2] https://justtransitionafrica.org/ [3] https://genderenergycompact.org/
Expanding syphilis screening among pregnant women in Indonesia using the rapid dual test for syphilis & HIV with capacity building: The DUALIS Study
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of syphilis, or congenital syphilis, is the second leading cause of preventable stillbirth globally, preceded only by malaria. While significant progress has been made over the past decade in preventing MTCT of HIV, the same cannot be said for syphilis. In 2016, there were more than half a million (about 661,000) cases of congenital syphilis, resulting in over 200,000 stillbirths and neonatal deaths. It is crucial that all women are provided with early syphilis screening and treatment as part of high-quality antenatal care (ANC). Transmission of HIV and syphilis to newborns is essentially preventable through the use of affordable and reliable rapid tests to support early diagnosis and treatment in pregnancy. A single rapid test for syphilis was added to Indonesia's MTCT HIV programme in 2013. While the level of HIV testing in pregnancy has been gradually rising since that time from 2% to 27%, testing for syphilis has barely shifted from 0.45% to 0.9%. Based on an estimated syphilis prevalence rate of 1.2%, it is predicted that 10,169 stillbirth cases could potentially be averted by increasing the coverage of antenatal syphilis screening in Indonesia. The dual test for HIV/syphilis point-of-care testing for pregnant women has been shown to be an effective and cost-saving tool for accelerating syphilis testing uptake in several low- and middle-income countries. It was approved for use in Indonesia in 2019 but is yet to be implemented. This is in part due to the low political priority given to syphilis compared with HIV, low levels of investment by the government and donors, and a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the dual test in routine care in Indonesia. For this study, we have partnered with the Indonesian Ministry of Health, WHO Indonesia, and a community NGO to evaluate the impact of the dual test with supporting elements (including capacity building the areas of screening procedures, inventory management, staff and patient engagement, data management and referrals, standard operating procedures, procurement and supply) in 4 districts of Indonesia. This cluster-randomised trial will be the first in Southeast Asia to assess the effectiveness, acceptability, cost-effectiveness, and affordability of the dual test for HIV and syphilis in routine ANC services. This intervention has the potential to contribute significantly to improved maternal and child health in Indonesia while building health system capacity to strengthen the prevention, detection, and treatment of syphilis.
Integrating and scaling seasonal climate-driven dengue forecasting
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Outbreaks of climate sensitive diseases present a major growing threat to human health, but they are predictable and maybe even preventable. The mosquito transmitted disease dengue is one of the fastest growing global infectious diseases and now causes over 400 million annual cases globally. Dengue is becoming the primary acute infectious disease threat in countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia. Between 2017 and 2019, Vietnam averaged over 200,000 cases every year and in Malaysia dengue fever has the highest incidence rate among any other communicable disease (398 cases per 100,000). Dengue outbreaks are preventable with existing interventions, but only if they are used in the right places at the right times. The ability to forecast disease outbreaks months in advance can reduce the burden on health services. This is important in resource-constrained Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) where they can make the difference between an effective and efficient proactive response compared to a costly and often unsuccessful reactive response. We aim to demonstrate the value of disease forecasting via a local level dengue forecasting system in Vietnam and Malaysia, which will pave the way for scale up of dengue forecasting and other digital health solutions for climate sensitive diseases. We have developed the necessary disease forecasting techniques as part of the Dengue forecasting MOdel Satellite-based System (D-MOSS) project. Although this system has been operational since July 2019 in Vietnam and July 2020 in Malaysia, more work is needed to bridge the implementation gap to ensure forecasts have direct actionable and measurable impacts on preventing outbreaks at a local level. Further research is required to establish if the forecasting techniques already in operation are capable of producing accurate forecasts at the required spatial and temporal resolutions, tailored to the practices applied by specific sectors of the health system. We will test this by co-developing new forecasts that provide advance predictions in Vietnam and Malaysia. Through a series of longitudinal workshops we will develop risk assessment protocols that link forecasts to outbreak prevention activities at different sectors of the Vietnamese and Malaysian health systems. These knowledge gaps will be addressed by a multidisciplinary team of dengue experts, modellers, public health experts, software engineers and early warning systems experts from multiple institutes in Vietnam, Malaysia and the UK. Training and co-design of the research is central to all aspects of our proposal and we intend to leverage the equitable partnerships established as part of the D-MOSS project to meet our aims. Cross-cutting activities will compare and contrast the operational context in these countries and enable collaboration between them with the goal of deriving generalisable principles and specific guidelines for expansion to other countries. This research will demonstrate clear health value against dengue and other Aedes mosquito-borne diseases (e.g. chikungunya, Zika) in Vietnam and Malaysia, and a plan for how the intervention will be scaled up to other LMICs currently struggling to address the growing threat of dengue and other climate-sensitive diseases. In the longer term, this project will provide evidence on the value of forecasting to health systems for a wide range of health conditions.
Effect of urban vs rural context on effectiveness of a community intervention to prevent diarrhoea and stunting in young children in Mali
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
GCRF Health and Context award - The Problem Globally 1.7 billion diarrhoea episodes result in approximately 2 million deaths in 2010.1 Regionally, Africa has the greatest burden. Alongside poor infant feeding, diarrhoea diseases also contribute to infant malnutrition.2-4 Despite new vaccines, treatments and public health measures,3 diarrhoea and malnutrition remain considerable public health problems in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The period when a child starts eating solids (usually 6-24 months called complementary food (CF)), is associated with the highest rates of diarrhoea: over 50% of all diarrhoea deaths occur at 6-11 months.1 Most low-income households in LMIC cook ingredients at home or obtain food from informal street food-sellers who prepare the goods in their homes. Therefore home food handling, preparation and storage determine the scale of food contamination. Although many studies explore the effects of improved water supply, hygiene and nutrition of infant diets on infant diarrhoea and growth development, much less attention paid to studies of food safety remain scarce. Research in this area has been too general to reduce diarrhoea through food contamination. The World Health Organisation (WHO) advocates targeted interventions to support CF safety and hygiene. Ideally CF safety needs to be accompanied with achieving optimal dietary intake for young children, which also remains a challenge in LMIC. Research shows that infant health and safety advice has limited impact on behaviour change unless accompanied by means to motivate and empower mothers in the community. Yet previous interventions targeting diet or diarrhoea have seldom drawn on cultural dramatic arts and community assets to motivate behaviour change. African communities have a particularly strong cultural heritage to underpin such potential impact. Our Aim We propose a low-cost, scalable, and adaptable community intervention to reduce diarrhoea and improve the growth of young children in urban-poor and rural Mali. We will assess the effects in both settings, to inform replication and scaling of the intervention, because the dynamics of community life vary in each. Our Previous Work We combine two complementary interventions shown to be effective elsewhere in LMIC. A trial in the Gambia (developed through former work in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan) evaluated efforts to improve hygiene and safety of CF, while a trial in Kenya evaluated a community programme to improve breastfeeding and weaning food content. Our Plan After adaptation with communities, our intervention will empower local families to implement behaviour change. It will include campaign-like activities such as culturally relevant dramatic arts (drama, songs, stories), public meetings, certifications, and home visits, delivered by a small team: 5 days of community campaign visits dispersed during 35 days and including home visits by trained female volunteers, plus a reminder campaign day at 9 months. We will allocate 120 urban and rural sites in Mali by chance to receive the intervention, or not, and assess 27 households in each site after 15 months. The study is designed to quantify the influence of urban vs rural context, and to examine other societal influences (e.g. household poverty, women's work, and education, etc). Using observations, interviews, discussion groups, surveys and laboratory tests we will compare the implementation of the intervention in urban-poor and rural settings. Importantly, the intervention is designed to be sustainable through peer-education among mothers and older female volunteers (demonstrated after 32 months in Gambia), thus requiring only small levels of coordination resources from central government.
Understanding phenotype and mechanisms of spontaneous preterm birth in sub-Saharan Africa (PRECISE-SPTB)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Preterm birth, birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is a major cause of infant death and illness in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 80% of preterm births globally have been estimated to occur in sub-Saharan African (sSA) and Asian countries, the majority being due to women going into preterm labour spontaneously or their membranes (waters) rupture early (classified together as spontaneous preterm birth, SPTB). Despite knowledge of the global impact of SPTB, most of the research into this often devastating pregnancy outcome has focussed on pregnant women in high income countries such as the UK and USA. Much less in known about SPTB in women from low income countries. However, the underlying biological causes of SPTB are complex and heavily influenced by environment, nutrition, infection and other risk factors that pregnant women are exposed to. Region specific research is essential if we are to improve maternal and newborn healthcare in countries where the burden of preterm birth is highest. Addressing this need, we plan to study to clinical and social risk factors (from 5000 women recruited to the PRECISE Network pregnancy cohort, https://precisenetwork.org/) combined with biological markers of SPTB in the female reproductive tract, blood and placental tissue in women from Kenya, The Gambia and Mozambique. We will integrate these data to enhance our biological understanding of SPTB as well as identifying novel biomarkers relevant to sub-Saharan African populations to predict risk of SPTB. We will also create sustainable teams of SPTB researchers by training five new African scientists and supporting their supervisor as research leaders. We will, with colleagues in The Gambia, establish a bioinformatics training programme and a laboratory science network for our researchers in Sub Saharan Africa and the UK. We anticipate that this work will impact future strategies for clinical risk management, prevention and treatment that specifically addresses the needs of women in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as having potential relevance to SPTB globally.
ISPF Fund for Global Health Impact and Capacity Building
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Research Development Fellowship Programme to provide opportunities for talented health researchers based in Africa, so that they can lead research that is responsive to its African settings and can contribute to reducing the burden of disease. It aims to develop emerging African scientists through developing their skills, experience, confidence and research outputs.
Medical Research Council (MRC) Delivery costs of International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) ODA activities
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Operational costs occurred at Medical Research Council (MRC) associated with hosting and/or managing ODA International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) programmes.
UKRI South East Asia OHPP Networking Events
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
We are delivering networking events as a central component of the UKRI Southeast Asia programme on infectious diseases with epidemic and AMR potential. All networking events will be delivered in partnership with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the British Embassies.The networking events are a direct response to requests from funding partners in SEA, who emphasised the need to convene researchers from countries involved physically to increase connectivity, foster collaborations and maximise the impact of the activity. In addition to the added value for the funding opportunity, the networking event unlocks value in terms of strengthening relationships with funding partners, emphasising commitment to working on ODA and with partners in SEA.
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