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Footnotes in Science is a space where investigators bring you the behind-the-scenes details of their recently published work.

In this Q&A, we pick the brain of Jessica Haberer, MD, regarding her latest perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Behind-the-Scenes Investment for Equity in Global Health Research.

Dr. Haberer is the Director of Research at the Center for Global Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

What motivated you and your team to write this perspective article?

My coauthor, Yap Boum, PhD, and I are very concerned about the inequities that exist in global health research and have been working on several initiatives to help address them.

Most relevant to this perspective article, we organized a series of meetings of research leaders at 22 African universities in 2021 and identified important barriers to the advancement of research on the continent.

Several solutions arose, including the need for high-quality mentorship, protected time for research and improved access to funding. The issue of indirect costs was noted, given its key role in supporting institutions, which are critical for true capacity building.

Can you explain what inequities in global health research entail? 

Research agendas are fundamentally driven by access to funding and academic resources.

The vast majority of both are in high-income settings, like the United States, Europe, and Australia. Researchers in high-income settings thus tend to determine which questions get answered.

Locally driven agendas suffer and limit the improvement of health for those in low and middle-income settings.

These agendas can also have important impacts globally (e.g., addressing infectious disease outbreaks, like COVID-19 and Monkeypox), as we note in the perspective article.

Why is equitable institutional support for global health research crucial? 

Researchers in low and middle income settings often have fewer opportunities than their colleagues in high income settings to advance their careers and to ultimately gain access to the funding and academic resources needed to promote their priorities in research. It’s a critical limitation driven by inequity

What are the next steps in your research?

While I am conducting several studies in medication adherence for HIV and tuberculosis, I spend most of my time supporting the research of others, about half of whom are based in low and middle-income settings.

My goal is to promote their ability to obtain grants as principal investigators, thus helping to reduce the inequities I described.

I am also involved in the Data Science Initiative for Africa mentioned in the perspective article. This grant is a primary award to the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda to support research priorities there and with partners in Ghana and Kenya.

It is also creating foundational research capacity in data science that I hope will amplify its impact in the years to come.

What can US institutions do to further advocate for equity in global health research? 

Professor Boum and I have recently begun developing a digital platform called The Village, for which we held a co-creation event at Mass General on Dec. 5, 2022.

This platform will use artificial intelligence techniques to match mentors with mentees, funders with grant recipients, and training opportunities with students, as well as promote other collaborations that will advance locally driven research agendas.

The overall goal is to enable opportunities for research career development that currently do not exist because limited professional networks.

We invite all who are interested in contributing to global health equity to join The Village by completing this survey: https://redcap.link/BTVRegistration

A recording of the event in December can be seen here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zxcxcfoms0sv54w/BtV%20All%20Speakers.mov?dl=0

Additionally, Professor Boum and colleagues recently published an article with a checklist for creating equitable global health research partnerships. I highly recommend reading it and incorporating it into all global health research.