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I'm Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡, and I'm proud to present just some of the global health research that is being carried out by our researchers here at the university, working with partners in different settings throughout the world.

Now, these are just a few examples of the way that our researchers are helping to create new insights and provide evidence which will help us to tackle some of the huge challenges facing us this century. They do that by working with communities and key stakeholders to make sure that their research is impactful, locally relevant and sustainable into the future.

Across the world, inequalities in health are a major and growing problem. Global health research helps to narrow these inequalities, providing locally-relevant evidence to give the world's most vulnerable people a chance to access better health information and healthcare.

University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ researchers are helping to tackle health challenges in many low and middle income countries around the world. Our researchers are working in all major continents, collaborating with local researchers and communities. Our research covers a wide range of health-related issues. We also work on the wider determinants of health. Our focus is on developing and evaluating locally relevant and affordable solutions.

Diarrhoea and malnutrition are responsible for millions of deaths in children globally, and Africa has the highest rate. Our research team is working in The Gambia and Mali to test community interventions aimed at reducing the burden of diarrhoea and improving young children's growth. We are working with mothers to improve hygiene during food preparation for their infants and improve its nutritional content. Many mothers know what to do, but knowledge is not enough. We use community support and motivational traditional drama and songs to change behaviour.

Our work is multidisciplinary, working with mothers, fathers, African drummers and artists, communities, NGOs, governments and United Nations. In The Gambia, where our intervention reduced diarrhoea by over 50%, the Ministry of Health is now seeking funding to scale our work throughout the country, and in Mali that is affected by conflict, we are studying how the intervention can be replicated in 120 urban and rural communities.

Researchers from across all five of our colleges are using their methodological and thematic expertise to find innovative solutions to global health issues.

In 2016, the world urgently needed to understand the origins of Zika virus, which was then associated with cases of newborn microcephaly in the Americas. To do this, we worked with Brazilian colleagues to develop an entirely new method of sequencing virus genomes rapidly.

We showed that Zika had been circulating in Brazil for a full year before it was detected, and demonstrated how it had spread across the Pacific from Asia. We continue to work closely with our Brazilian colleagues, using our methods to understand new and emerging mosquito transmitted viruses. Our sequencing method ultimately became famous globally as it set the standard for how SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Researchers from our different study disciplines worked together to complement each other's strengths, producing research, which is informed from a range of perspectives.

The A Systems Approach to air pollution in East Africa or ASAP East Africa project brought together leading UK and East African researchers in air pollution, urban planning, economic geography, public health, social sciences and development studies. The project provides a framework for improved air quality management in East African cities and was funded by the UK government via the FCDO.

The primary study cities were the capitals of Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, namely Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Kampala. The success of the project has seen the replication of the approach in other cities and countries around the world, including India and North Macedonia.

Throughout our research, we commit to working in partnership with the communities who benefit from the research to ensure that it's relevant and sustainable and inclusive of all segments of society.

Communities are central to achieving our goal of improving the lives of people affected by leprosy and Buruli ulcers. This includes working with partner NGOs, their staff, some of whom have lived experiences of these conditions, as well as individuals directly affected by the condition we work on.

I'm proud to be one of those individuals. My lived experience of leprosy has allowed me to provide crucial insights as a co-applicant on the ground and also as a steering board member.

Our researchers work with their local partners to engage with relevant stakeholders at national and international level throughout their projects to ensure that the evidence from their research informs policy and practice to make sure that that research makes a difference.

We received funding from the US National Institute of Health and the UK National Institute of Health Care Research to work with the ambulance services in Rwanda to develop a more efficient communication system.

Yes, the communications between the ambulance dispatch and the facility was made by multiple phone calls and delayed getting the patient to the right facility at the right time.

So, working with academics from different disciplines, service providers and software developers, we're building two interlinked communication systems. The first dispatches ambulances and locates the patient. The second matches the patient to the right facility.

The first is already being used in our central dispatch system in Kigali. The second is being developed. Working together with the partners from multiple backgrounds and countries will mean that the system really will fit to our needs.

By supporting local academic and partner institutions, we build research capacity which can be sustained in the future and contribute to improving the health and lives of local people in the long term.

I'm delighted to talk to you in my capacity as the co-director of the NIHR Global Health Research Unit in Surgery based here at the University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡. We coordinate the largest research network in the world of over 30,000 surgeons in 120 countries. Our vision is to transform the lives of surgical patients through the implementation of best practice and delivering high quality research evidence to improve the lives of our patients.

Engage with us on our journey so that together we can continue to tackle the world's most significant global health challenges to tackle the world's most significant global health challenges.