GCRF Digital Innovation for Development in Africa programme: light-touch review

Executive summary

Programme overview

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Digital Innovation for Development in Africa (DIDA) programme was delivered by the UKRI International Team through two stages. It aimed to help harness digital development opportunities for Africa, with the potential to deliver positive outcomes across the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) and the GCRF Challenge Portfolios.

DIDA was a two-stage programme with the first stage dedicated to developing multidisciplinary seed fund networks within the thematic areas of the programme, with the intention for them to be developed into large-scale proposals. These proposals were then to be submitted for the second round of funding to undertake full projects, aligned with the digital for development challenge areas.

Purpose and approach of this review

The purpose of this light-touch review is to bring together key findings, early outcomes and results of the programme to provide an overview of how it has progressed, whether it has met its original aims, and any significant changes, challenges or outcomes experienced at project level.

This review will present data, narrative and examples collected from internal UKRI information. Evidence has been collated from project reporting submitted by grant holders and funding opportunity documents, used to highlight impact and provide learning for designing similar programmes.

Key findings

The DIDA programme focused on developing digital solutions to challenges facing people living in Africa. Proposed projects were required to fit within three identified thematic areas:

digital rights
smart communities
digital health

The areas were identified by researchers and stakeholders working in Africa using an online crowdsourcing platform. This was an experimental digital approach which was unique to the DIDA programme, and encouraged engagement from partners and stakeholders who had first-hand experience of the challenges which the programme should aim to tackle.

The programme received 123 eligible applications, of which a total of 24 projects were successful in being awarded funding, following the panel review process.

One of the main intended outcomes of the programme was to develop strong equitable partnerships between researchers in Africa and the UK, and to attract a diverse range of applications with the primary beneficiaries based in Africa. To achieve this the seed fund networks could be led by a principal investigator based in either a UK research organisation (RO) eligible to receive funding from UKRI, or an equivalent eligible RO in an African country.

The programme intended to be more accessible through using the crowdsourcing platform and thus including African researchers in the development stages, as well as encouraging awards to be held within Africa. However, only two of the final 24 funded projects were based at African research organisations.

Although these numbers were low, projects were successful in developing strong partnerships and increasing engagement and networking opportunities through collaboration with a variety of African organisations.

DIDA Stage One awards were due to commence in February 2020. However, the start date was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Projects started in April to May 2020, and many of the awards experienced some level of disruption to their intended work plans because of the ongoing pandemic.

Project teams were pragmatic and quickly adapted their plans so that this work could be completed, utilising digital platforms and programmes to ensure collaboration could continue despite being unable to travel.

Alongside the pandemic, the Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending review by the UK government in early 2021 meant that Stage Two of the DIDA Programme did not go ahead, and the networks developed did not have the opportunity to progress their full projects as originally planned within the designed scope of the programme.

Despite this, project teams demonstrated resilience and the ability to creatively leverage other funding opportunities. This is demonstrated through analysis of project reporting by grant holders and research outcomes reported via the online Researchfish system. Here we can learn of several examples of projects continuing, being sustained and further funding being secured, which has enabled the networks developed to continue towards their aims.

This reflects the positive progress made in the development of digital technologies to provide solutions to the issues identified within the thematic areas.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) reporting and analysis of research outcomes reported via Researchfish shows that over 537 research outcomes have been generated by the DIDA projects to date. This includes several examples reported under ‘Further funding’ and ‘Collaborations and partnerships’ which grant holders have indicated are likely to extend past the lifetime of the project.

Overall, the DIDA programme has made good progress in achieving its Stage One objectives despite delays following the budget reductions and pandemic. It has provided learning on new ways of identifying research areas using a crowdsourcing platform for the first time, and involving researchers from Africa at early stages to gain an insight of challenges faced, directly from an African perspective.

It has also facilitated the development of a range of partnerships and has bought together a variety of public and private organisations, many of which are collaborations likely to continue to develop.

The cancellation of Stage Two limited outcomes and led to projects being less ambitious than they could have been. However, many outputs have been delivered, and grant holder reporting suggests that many project teams are committed to continuing their research and working towards their wider intended outcomes following the end of the completion of the programme.

Programme summary

At the time of the DIDA programme’s inception, growth in the number of people using the internet since 2000 was higher in Africa than in any other continent. This demonstrates how digital technologies and advances are becoming more relevant to the most vulnerable communities. It also presents an opportunity to utilise this rapid growth in usage to tackle challenges faced by people in Africa.

To help harness these digital development opportunities within Africa, the UKRI International Team (formerly the International Development Team at UKRI) commissioned the DIDA programme in 2019. Table 1 shows the intended timeline and funding available at the time of the programme going live.

Table 1: GCRF DIDA programme timeline and funding
Award details	Stage 1	Stage 2
Total number of awards	15 to 20	6 to 8
Total funding	Between £100,000 and £150,000 per award	Up to £19 million across all awards
Duration of awards	12 months	Three years

Programme objectives

The funding opportunity was funded through the GCRF which formed part of the UK’s ODA commitment, with UKRI as a significant delivery partner. The fund sought to tackle global challenges in the national interest by supporting challenge-led disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, strengthening capacity for research and innovation, and providing an agile response to emergencies where there is an urgent research need.

The focus of the DIDA programme was applying digital solutions to immediate challenges faced by communities in Africa, to create opportunities for new and improved processes, products and services, resulting in instrumental changes to people’s lives.

The programme was split into two stages:

Stage One focused on developing interdisciplinary networks
these networks would then enable partners to apply for funding to undertake projects aligned with the strategic goals within the Stage Two thematic areas

The seed fund networks in Stage One were required to be multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary, with the aim of facilitating the development of partnerships between:

public and private researchers
industry
non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
policymakers
practitioners

This would maximise the innovation, commercialisation and impact of the appropriate digital solutions.

Applicants were required to submit proposals based on the following three thematic areas.

Digital rights:

the impact of disruptive technology on human rights, working conditions, legal protections, and the amplification of existing inequalities
the use of digital technology to enhance participation and access for women and minority groups
improving access to and the quality of government services (for instance taxation, voting, justice, visas, healthcare)
digital documentation, data vaulting and digital security of official documents (for instance passports, birth certificates)
improving participation in civil life and access to justice and democratic institutions

Smart communities:

monitoring and management of terrestrial and coastal environmental services
monitoring and management of pollution (for example, greenhouse gases, waste, plastic, air), including hazard forecasting and early-warning systems
inclusive circular economies, recycling and the management of industrial and municipal waste in urban environments
access, management and monitoring of drinking water and sanitation in rural and urban settings
urban traffic management and vehicle pollution

Digital health:

availability, access and management of patient information and health communications
reporting, monitoring and controlling the spread of infectious disease
managing healthcare for remote communities, including telemedicine, access to diagnostic medicine, monitoring health, and effective distribution of medicines for remote or isolated communities

Applicants were encouraged to also consider the digital divisions that research and innovation may cause or address, particularly regarding gender and intersectional inequalities, and the educational availability and training needs required for working with new digital technologies.

For projects focusing on developing digital solutions, applicants were advised to also consider the level of access to technology experiences by their potential users and ensure that the initiatives align with the ‘Leaving no one behind in a digital world’ principles.

Crowdicity online platform

UKRI took a unique approach to identifying the three thematic areas for the DIDA programme, which involved using a dedicated online crowdsourcing platform called ‘Crowdicity’.

The platform allowed researchers and stakeholders from Africa, and those working in Africa, to discuss the major challenges facing people across the continent and discuss how digital technologies and solutions can solve them. The platform was live for five months between November 2018 and March 2019, enabling online networking between users and encouraging them to converse, connect and discuss their ideas.

The ‘ideas’ area of the platform was broken down into the three overarching challenge areas of the GCRF:

sustainable economies and societies
equitable access to sustainable development
human rights, good governance and social justice

Users had to select an area and a sub-category of GCRF development aims within that area and then submit their ideas against it. Users could also view other people’s ideas and comment and vote on them.

From this activity, UKRI were able to identify the main ideas and challenges, and group them within each of the three main thematic areas. In total there were 316 users registered on the platform from a variety of countries across Africa and the rest of the world.

Using the Crowdicity platform allowed UKRI to develop a more focused funding opportunity across the identified challenge areas, in order to bring together the relevant business sectors with researchers, using digital technologies as an overarching theme.

Intended outcomes and impact

Outcomes

In terms of outcomes, the DIDA programme intended for researchers and research users in Africa and the UK to be better connected, and able to develop strong equitable partnerships. The Crowdicity platform was used to facilitate this and to also create a mechanism for the provision of knowledge of the challenges and potential solutions within an African context.

The programme aimed to attract a diverse range of interdisciplinary applications with the primary beneficiaries based in Africa and to award funding to novel projects bringing together the research and private sector to tackle global challenges. Other intended outcomes were increasing the engagement of previously marginalised actors and beneficiaries, and creating opportunities for networking, commercialisation, capacity building, knowledge exchange and policy influencing, beyond the reach of the DIDA programme.

Impacts

The intended impacts were to improve access to digital innovations and solutions through the successful commercialisation of digital products or processes. They were also to create cohesion between businesses, researchers, charities and policymakers in their approaches to combat challenges faced in Africa, in order to improve the lives of people living there.

The bottom-up approach aimed to encourage input from partners in the global south leading to an increased awareness of UKRI within the global research community and strengthening of the GCRF portfolio. The programme also intended to change behaviour, policy and practice and create a shift towards innovation culture within Africa.

Summary of internal programme delivery

Applications for stage one of the DIDA funding opportunity closed in November 2019. Applications were submitted through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) System and the funding opportunity was hosted by EPSRC for administrative purposes, however the DIDA programme was managed by the UKRI International Development team.

The application consisted of completion of the standard Je-S form with the following supplementary documents included as attachments:

case for support
justification of resources
ODA compliance statement
Data Management Plan
gender equality statement
CVs for principal investigators and co-investigators
Pathways to Impact
project partner letters of support

There was no written peer review stage for the funding opportunity, and proposals were assessed through a panel process only. The eligibility of submitted applications was initially assessed by UKRI and a list of 123 proposals were agreed to be put forward to the specially convened panel in January 2020. Due to the funding opportunity having three main themes, the proposals were considered by two separate panels in parallel. The first panel considered the Digital Heath proposals and the other panel the Digital Rights and Smart Communities proposals.

Panels scored proposals against an assessment criterion grouped under the following five categories:

Relevance and fit to funding opportunity
Quality
Programme of activities, organisation and management
Capacity-building, partnerships and inclusion
Likelihood of impact

The panels scored proposals to create a ranked order of proposals for each of the funding opportunity themes. The UKRI Executive approved funding based on the recommendations of the panel and consideration of the balance across the themes which resulted in 24 proposals successfully receiving funding.

Reporting requirements

The reporting requirements for the DIDA programme were intended to be as light-touch as possible and only one Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) narrative report was required from grant holders. This report was required to be completed and returned within three months of their Stage One award coming to an end.

These narrative-based MEL reports are designed to provide UKRI with information on the progress of the project, categorised as outputs and outcomes, and referring back to the initial objectives of the project. The information generated by these reports is also intended to be used by UKRI when designing or implementing future projects, to ensure shared learning.

Grant holders were provided with a reporting template to complete in the following format:

introduction: a brief explanation about the project and purpose of the report
Theory of Change: a diagrammatic and narrative Theory of Change including results chain, assumptions, risks and mitigation measures and stakeholder mapping
project progress: an explanation of the progress of their project against each output and activity, highlighting any deviation from set milestones in a log frame format and any risks faced and mitigation measures taken
conclusion: the final narrative section of the document summarising the key findings and any recommendations to UKRI for designing future projects
annexures (optional): space to provide any relevant images, success stories and communication materials relating to their award

As with all UKRI funded awards successful applicants were also required to report research outcomes on Researchfish in line with the standard UKRI terms and conditions. Analysis of the research outcomes data for the DIDA programme can be found within the ‘Project-level findings’ section.

Background and context to programme

For Stage One of the DIDA programme, 24 networking grants were funded at a combined total of £3 million. The projects were 12 months long, due to start in February 2020 and end in January 2021. However, due to delays caused by the COVID-19 all 24 projects started in April and May 2020 (three months later than planned).

The projects were due to end in April 2021, but following complications and further delays caused by the pandemic several grant holders requested extensions. This resulted in 16 awards being extended up to six months, with the final awards ending in October 2021.

Remit of successful projects

Projects funded through this programme contributed to 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including:

good health and wellbeing
quality education
gender equality
clean water and sanitation
decent work and economic growth
industry, innovation, and infrastructure
reduced inequalities
sustainable cities and communities
responsible consumption production
climate action
life on land

DIDA workshop

A DIDA Workshop was held in November 2020 with the aim of bringing together all the successful networks to promote collaboration, share best practice and facilitate the development of strong proposals for the second round of the programme. Two representatives from each successful network were required to attend the workshop which covered several different themes, including:

digital for development
multi-sectoral networking
gender equality and capacity-building
equitable partnerships

The workshop was originally intended to be held in person during March or April 2020, however, due to the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic it went ahead later in the year and was held virtually over Zoom due to travel restrictions.

As part of the workshop, the timeline for DIDA Stage Two was discussed with grant holders, and as part of a post-workshop survey they were asked to provide their preference between three different options as to how the programme would proceed following the delays caused by the pandemic.

ODA budget reductions by UK government and changes to programme outcomes

The DIDA programme initially intended for successful Stage One applicants to be invited to apply to Stage Two to receive funding for a full research or innovation project, or enhanced network building ‘Network Plus’ grant, with up to £19 million available across six to eight projects over three years.

In February 2021, the UK government took the decision to reduce its ODA budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI). The ensuing ODA review resulted in an overall cut of around 70% in all planned UKRI ODA expenditure for the financial year 2021 to 2022.

Following this reduction, the GCRF and Newton Fund portfolio of awards were subsequently affected. In total, this resulted in a reduction of £3.8 million from the programme. The budget available to the DIDA programme was affected by these budget reductions, meaning that Stage Two did not go ahead as planned and the networking projects did not receive any further funding to progress into full research grants.

The internal UKRI ODA review completed in July 2022 documents the key findings from surveys of grant holders undertaken by UKRI, to better understand the consequences of the 2021 ODA budget reductions at project level.

International context

For Stage One of the programme, the seed fund network was required to be led by a Network Leader principal investigator based in a UK research organisation (RO) eligible to receive funding from UKRI, or based in an equivalent eligible RO in an African country.

The lead organisation would then be responsible for the overall management of the grant. Network co-leaders (co-investigators) could be based anywhere in the world. However, it was a requirement that there be at least one African and one UK investigator listed on the submission.

There were fairly low numbers of applications from African organisations, and most of the successful applications were based within the UK. Overall, two of the successfully funded projects were based in African countries (African Population and Health Research Centre, Kenya, and University of Cape Town, South Africa).

Successful projects had a broad beneficiary reach across a range of African countries, including:

Ethiopia
Kenya
Nigeria
Rwanda
Somalia
South Africa
Tanzania
Uganda

Many projects aimed to produce outcomes that would have cross-continent impact.

Project-level findings

Note: findings captured throughout this section are those highlighted to UKRI through project reporting from grant holders.

Challenges, barriers or significant external changes faced at project level

DIDA projects began in April and May 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions on international travel meant that many grant holders were required to adapt their approach to be able to meet their intended outcomes.

Stage One awards focused on developing multi-stakeholder networks, and so travel restrictions meant that many activities which were intended to be held in-person had to be reconsidered or held virtually, using digital platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Grant holders reported that this shift initially affected their projects negatively. However, many were able to find ways to adapt their projects to mitigate the impacts, with some being able to use the challenges presented by the pandemic to their advantage.

The pandemic overwhelmed health systems in many African countries, leading the grant holders on two projects focusing on digital health to state that this resulted in limited engagement with health ministries and officials, because their priority was the response to the pandemic.

Meetings were moved online to try and make engagement easier. However, for one project it was reported that attendance in meetings remained low and the sustainability of the network remained in question, due to a lack of partnerships formed outside of the project team.

Further to this, a common theme from project reporting is that many project teams found that the shift to remote working led to longer lead times in developing relationships with stakeholders, and there was a higher risk of technical issues disrupting work.

By moving activities online, project teams also had to be mindful of digital divides and ensuring that this didn’t limit engagement from some stakeholders, as well as considering different time zones and prayer times across African countries when scheduling virtual meetings.

The COVID-19 pandemic was also reported to have led to members being unable to attend meetings and participate in networks due to illness. One project team that encountered this were able to mitigate the impact by recording meetings, allowing members to keep up to date upon returning to work.

Although many of the reports highlight the COVID-19 pandemic as a challenge, most have stated that they were able to adapt accordingly to continue with their project and meet objectives, or adapt their aims accordingly so that progress could still be made.

One grant holder provided an example of adapting to the pandemic positively, explaining that through shifting in-person activities online they were able to turn the constraints of the pandemic into an opportunity to reflect on the growing influence of digital platforms. This was in line with the project objective to understand how digitisation and datafication are reshaping public communications and the informal economy in East Africa.

The focus of one project was mConsulting (the use of mobile technology in clinical communication between health providers and patients), which was recommended as an approach by the World Health Organization in the early stages of the pandemic. The project team realised they were well positioned to contribute to the COVID-19 pandemic response, and were able to adapt their original plans to instead develop a training package for healthcare workers responding to the pandemic.

Significant changes and risks faced at project level

The most significant change to DIDA projects was the cancellation of Stage Two following the ODA budget reductions in early 2021. In most cases it was not possible for grant holders to mitigate for the loss of funding for their full-scale projects, however, project teams aimed to continue work and meet the aims of their projects at network stage where possible.

For many projects the main deliverable for Stage One was the development of a full proposal for Stage Two, and removal of this made it harder to measure the success of their initial work.

As a result of the loss of funding, project reporting from grant holders highlighted a loss of momentum and the demotivation of teams, alongside the additional workload faced by team members to repurpose funds and change project plans and intended outputs.

One report stated that the project team made sure to communicate openly and honestly with partners to avoid any motivational lows and attempt to keep the team engaged.

Another report cited that withdrawal of the second phase of DIDA funding severely jeopardised the likelihood of the established network achieving a larger-scale impact. However, the report went on to state that members of the network had demonstrated resilience and the ability to creatively leverage other funding opportunities.

Project teams were required to rapidly adapt and set out other achievable project objectives. An example of this provided by one project team is that while they were unable to pursue their original plans of building a network that would then collaboratively develop a proposal for Stage Two, they changed focus to produce multiple outputs that would be more achievable within the timeframe. However, a significant amount of work was required to repurpose the funds, and the team noted that they would be unable to pursue the outputs and outcomes further without receiving funding.

Grant holders reported having to request no-cost extensions to complete all the proposed activities and close off their work. Others reported seeking alternative funding sources to be able to continue the projects they intended to go on to apply for at Stage Two of DIDA. See the ‘project continuation and sustainability’ section for more information.

Although the ODA budget reductions had the potential to disrupt projects and did not allow for projects to develop into the next stage, reporting suggests that most grant holders were able to meet their initial Stage One aims of building networks and making connections with stakeholders across Africa.

This can therefore be considered as useful groundwork and a potential basis for future funding opportunities, as well as seeing strengthened relationships across African organisations and between African researchers, or those based within Africa.

Project continuation and sustainability (beyond completion date)

Several grant holders reported receiving further funding which has allowed research to continue in place of the Stage Two DIDA funding. Examples of this include:

the Digital Diagnostics for Africa Network received £3 million of additional funding from the National Institute for Health Research in 2022, as part of its Global Health Research Group programme to build on the work of the network established through DIDA
Gender-Just Digital Innovation in Africa (GeDIA) successfully received $1.2 million (CAD) from the Canadian International Development Research Centre: out of over 195 applications, 8 were chosen and GeDIA was successful, which demonstrates the quality of the research agenda that was co-produced in Stage One of the DIDA programme
the Implementation Network for Sharing Population Information from Research Entities in East Africa (INSPIRE-EA) secured $1,1 million (CAD) from the African Population and Health Research Centre to work on data collected regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, maternal health and mental health, through demonstrating the methods devised as part of the DIDA programme
Digital Innovations for Transitioning to a Circular Plastic Economy went on to secure £1.5 million funding from the Department for International Development under the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution Programme in 2022, they also received £100,00 from the Circular Plastic Innovation Hub funded by the British Council Innovation for African Universities programme
Co-produced mobile consulting for remote, marginalised communities in Africa secured £819,596 further funding from UKRI through the GCRF Agile Response to COVID-19 Programme

It is positive to see that these projects have been successful in securing additional funding which has enabled the networks that were developed within the first phase of the DIDA programme to progress as originally intended. Other projects have demonstrated the ability to adapt their original aims and use the networks developed to focus on new objectives, also allowing them to apply to different programmes.

This demonstrates the continued progress and the sustainability of projects originally funded through DIDA, via a different direction. There are also strong examples of capacity-strengthening for international partners, and how the skills and training received as part of the project will enable them to continue building on the work within their countries.

Extracts taken from project reporting

While the project officially ended in April 2021, work will continue to develop and sustain emerging relationships and collaborations over the coming months, through ensuring that key channels of communication (such as the project website, social media) are sustained. A key legacy of the project is the training provided for both facilitators and participants through the digital storytelling workshops reaching out across Kenya and impacting on very different communities and settings.

As a direct result of the project, the three facilitators are now Associates for DigiTales (UK partner), enabling them to contribute to future activities and projects with the company. The DRIVE project team will do all we can to encourage and follow our trainees as they continue to develop their skills and seek out new stories to tell.

The local entrepreneurs in our network will build on what we have learned together to implement new products in their own countries. We hope that ultimately our findings will inform national and international policy and contribute to the establishment of a new sector in many African economies. The international network we have built has already submitted proposals together, and will continue to work together on these topics as resources permit.

This was a network-building grant rather than a research grant. As such, the main goal that we set out was to build a network of 20 prominent digital rights practitioners, digital rights policymakers and academic researchers across seven African countries (Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and South Africa).

We have exceeded this goal. We now have 30 members from 10 countries and continue to grow. Moreover, the new additions to the network (Egypt, Sudan and Cameroon) have allowed us to branch out into new geographical areas in Africa (North Africa) as well as cover experiences of Francophone and Arabic-Speaking Africa.

In the face of COVID-19, we designed and remotely delivered training in the use of remote consulting to 12 registered health workers in Ulanga District in rural Tanzania (using their own phones). Trainees were selected from rural and marginalised communities where telecoms infrastructure is variable.

Trainees included six medical doctors, five assistant medical officers and one pharmacist. The 12 trained healthcare workers then cascaded the training to 63 other health workers of different cadres in their facilities or district, including community health workers.

Our impact and process evaluation found that the health workers were upskilled to deliver primary care in remote patient consultation and they were practising remote consulting with community members, although there were some challenges with connectivity. Additionally, the training contributed to teamwork and improved communication skills amongst healthcare workers.

We have built a network of clinicians, health scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs across Africa and the UK, looking at the challenges and opportunities afforded by open-source hardware for digital diagnostic devices. We have already formed a number of valuable links between the different NGOs, universities and businesses involved, and are conducting some proof-of-principle research projects.

We have run training courses for the network members on the relevant international standards that are crucial to quality control, and conducted stakeholder engagement exercises to prepare for future projects that implement open hardware-based diagnostic devices in those countries.

This would have been a key part of our Phase 2 project had the scheme not been cancelled, and we have been investigating alternative routes to fund future activities.

Analysis of research outcomes reporting (via Researchfish)

Researchfish gathers information on project outcomes that that have been generated as a result of funding provided by UKRI. This allows us to reflect on the progress of each project by measuring the number of various outputs or outcomes produced and use of those outputs by other individuals, organisations or projects.

The narrative around these outcomes and outputs is a useful source of information which allows us to understand how, and to what extent, projects are progressing towards achieving their initial aims. It also provides us with wider knowledge on how successful UKRI’s programmes have been, enables analysis of the outcomes and impacts of research across the wider community, and supports us to identify stories of impact to promote our achievements.

The short-term nature of the DIDA Stage One programme has led to three years’ worth of output data being currently available. While this represents a comparatively small dataset, it still provides a useful overview of the progress made to date. Grant holders will also continue to report research outcomes via Researchfish for a five-year period following the end of their projects, which will provide a continued insight into further progress, sustainability and early impacts.

Researchfish requires grant holders to record common outcome types which cover outputs (such as publications, exhibitions, new research tools or method) and outcomes (such as new or improved products, processes or public policies). Table 2 shows the total outcomes reported from when the awards commenced in 2020, up until the most recent reporting period in March 2023.

Table 2: award outcomes across different outcome types
Outcome type	Number of outcomes	Number of awards
Publications	72	18
Software and technical products	2	2
Further funding	33	11
Collaborations and partnerships	193	21
Engagement activities	201	22
Influence on policy, practice, patients and the public	23	12
Other outputs	12	6
Total	537

Researchfish data shows that, to date, 21 projects have reported a total of 193 outcomes under ‘collaborations and partnerships’ which fall under the following impact categories: policy, cultural, societal and economic. These partnerships have been reported against 167 different organisations including universities, charities, businesses and NGOs based in Africa and other countries.

The main aim of Stage One of DIDA was the development of strong multidisciplinary networks with stakeholders across Africa, and it is therefore positive to learn that projects have been widely successful in achieving this and bringing together a variety of public and private organisations.

Most of these collaborations were recorded as having started in 2020 and 2021 as part of the DIDA programme. Alongside this there were a small number of pre-existing collaborations which started before the DIDA projects which grant holders were able to utilise within their projects.

The development of strong collaborations and partnerships has contributed to 23 policy outputs against the following influence types:

contribution to new or improved professional practice: 1
implementation circular, rapid advice, letter: 3
influenced training of practitioners or researchers: 14
membership of a guideline committee: 2
participation in a guidance or advisory committee: 2
citation in systematic reviews: 1

This shows that 12 of the funded projects have been able to influence policy change within their beneficiary countries, which has been achieved through a variety of pathways. These include the development and implementation of training programmes, the development of policy briefings, and attending meetings with government bodies including Ministries of Health.

Almost all projects have reported some form of engagement outcomes under the following categories:

a talk or presentation: 58
participation in an activity, workshop or similar: 73
a magazine, newsletter or online publication: 5
engagement-focused website, blog or social media channel: 25
a formal working group, expert panel or dialogue: 25
a broadcast, such as TV, radio, film, podcast (other than news, press): 4
a press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry or interview: 11

These engagement activities are crucial for projects to be able to influence policy change, provide a platform to share research findings with the wider community, engage with stakeholders and encourage the synthesis of ideas and learning.

Alongside the reports of additional funding within the project continuation and sustainability section, Researchfish data demonstrates that 11 projects have reported a total of 33 instances of securing further funding since 2020, from both UKRI and other funders based in the UK and overseas.

It is positive to learn that grant holders have been able to secure alternative sources of funding despite Stage Two not going ahead, enabling project teams to continue their work and to generate intended outcomes and impacts. This also demonstrates the commitment of grant holders and project teams and their continued dedication to ensuring that research progress moves forward.

Overall, the Researchfish outcomes data demonstrates a wealth of positive and progressive outcomes and outputs that have been generated by the DIDA programme to date.

Case studies and stories of impact

As part of narrative reporting, grant holders provided any success stories, images and communication materials relevant to their award to support the demonstration of early impacts.

Mosquito-borne disease prevention in Africa-Network (MosquitoNET)

As part of the MosquitoNET activities, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) worked closely with rural communities in Tanzania to understand the potential of applying citizen science and digital technologies for addressing current gaps in detection and response to mosquito-borne diseases. The aim was to generate baseline data from remote villages in rural south-eastern Tanzania to demonstrate that the distributed digitally assisted surveillance platform can work in practical terms.

Consenting eligible households were enrolled into training activities, which involved developing basic skills in trapping mosquitoes using commonly used traps, such as the miniature light trap provided by the Centres for Disease Control. The training also involved morphological identification of the mosquitoes, and standard preservation of the collected samples.

Through this work, it was shown that mosquito surveillance can be enhanced through the application of digital health technologies with the support of citizen science.

Gender-just digital innovation in Africa (GeDIA): uniting women changemakers (and their male allies) to co-design gender-just digital futures

Data Science Africa (DSA) is a network of Data Science academics across Africa who organise an in-person Data Science Africa Summer School for advanced students and staff. This is a very successful capacity-building initiative, however, up to our intervention only 30% of DSA participants were women.

One of the co-founders of DSA was a co-investigator on the GeDIA project which enabled a collaboration in 2021 to make progress towards gender justice. A team of female conference co-chairs organised the Summer School, which was held online for the first time due to Covid-19, and with a record attendance of 534 participants from 25 African countries.

The theme was ‘Women and data in Africa’, and thanks to active recruitment work by GeDIA, 51% of registered participants were women (and three participants were non-binary or preferred not to say). GeDIA commissioned customised sessions on gender equality and data science and thus enriched the curriculum.

The summer school generated over 15 hours of training material, accessible on the YouTube channel, and the 2021 hackathon was for the first time focused on a gender-equality related dataset.

Digital Health for Migrant Mothers Network: maternal care in Dadaab camps

Migrant Mothers: Digital Health network has produced three virtual reality (VR) ‘immersive storytelling’ tools documenting refugee midwives and refugee mothers’ experiences in Dadaab refugee camps.

This VR was selected by the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) ‘Global Change’ festival and featured in their speaker series. Here policymakers and humanitarian organisations reflected on how this toolkit helped them better understand cultural challenges of providing care in camps, one of the primary goals or the project.

A ‘Humanitarian VR Handbook’ was also produced which has been integrated into UN partners’ training as well as a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) training package. The VR has also been integrated into Kenyatta University’s nursing program, to train future midwives.

Mobile phone enabled diagnostics for infectious disease diagnosis: low cost tools for digital health in East Africa

Parasitic helminth infections, including schistosomiasis, remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality in much of Africa. As part of this DIDA collaboration, partners including the University of Glasgow and Ministry of Health (Uganda) have developed a 3D-printed automated microscope which can be used to scan Kato-Katz slides to identify helminth eggs in faecal smears, costing £100.

The handheld low-cost microscope was used in schools in rural under-served communities, linking diagnosis and treatment for individuals at the point-of-care, point-of-need. The instrument interfaces with a smartphone and the Cloud, to control scans and run a deep-learning egg detection algorithm, which counts the number of eggs in the sample and assigns a diagnosis.

Using state-of-the-art convolutional neural network architectures for supervised deep learning, it already shows signs of being an effective automated pan-helminth diagnostic platform with a detection sensitivity of over 96% in proof-of-concept trials, across the six included helminth classes that we have tested.

Our point-of-need microscopic diagnostics consistently and correctly detect higher levels of schistosomiasis infection than had previously been estimated or detected by local health authorities.

In one example, Mr Dunstan Balaba, the District Chief Administrative Officer of Tororo, Uganda, stated that the prevalence of schistosomiasis in the region surprised the authorities: “based on this evidence Tororo District has […] put in place a programme of mass drug administration to address the widespread problem”. The ability to provide local granular information in village school children was key to his decision.

Recommendations and learning

Recommendations for similar and future investments from project reporting.

As part of narrative reporting, grant holders were asked (as an optional question) to provide recommendations to UKRI in relation to any aspect of the programme, for example to highlight challenges, areas for improvement and share ideas as to how these could be mitigated for future funding opportunities.

Feedback referred to the ODA funding reductions which caused the cancellation of the second stage of the programme and the subsequent knock-on effects on relationships and networks.

One report stated that the cancellation of Stage Two had necessitated a significant amount of work to repurpose the funds towards appropriate outputs and rebuild the relationships that had been developed during Stage One. Another report raised similar concerns regarding the potential impact on partnerships between UK and international partner organisations.

One specific example cited how the project team had to put in considerable additional resource in an effort to maintain relationships following the reductions, and utilised the resources allocated in Stage One to help facilitate this.

Another grant holder explained that UKRI’s commitment to deliver on what had been promised is vital to the success of projects and partnerships required to take forward important research agendas, so funding should never be reduced once awards are active.

Feedback relating to the impact of the ODA reduction is extremely important to UKRI and provides important learning to help understand how this directly impacted projects and grant holders. It provides learning opportunities of how different approaches should be considered if a similar situation was to occur in the future, to mitigate the impact on projects that are already underway and making progress towards their objectives.

Other feedback referred to the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of adaptability by researchers, including stating the need to be flexible and resilient, and the importance of a collective ethos of care; supporting colleagues to help ensure a supportive working environment during the pandemic.

Other recommendations related to good practice for building more equitable partnerships with colleagues abroad, and how by decentralising leadership from one principal investigator to five co-directors they were able to gather different perspectives, with joint responsibilities and commitment.

One grant holder took the opportunity to thank the UKRI DIDA Team administering the grants for their support during what was a challenging period for all.

In conclusion, the feedback and suggestions provided by grant holders is important for UKRI to receive in consideration of the development of future funding opportunities, and provide grant holders with the opportunity to share insight and feedback from their experience of collaborating with UKRI.

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