Skip to main content

Global infectious disease research collaborations in crises: building capacity and inclusivity through cooperation

Abstract

Background

The initial research requirements in pandemics are predictable. But how is it possible to study a disease that is so quickly spreading and to rapidly use that research to inform control and treatment?

Main body

In our view, a dilemma with such wide-reaching impact mandates multi-disciplinary collaborations on a global scale. International research collaboration is the only means to rapidly address these fundamental questions and potentially change the paradigm of data sharing for the benefit of patients throughout the world. International research collaboration presents significant benefits but also barriers that need to be surmounted, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusion

Facilitating international cooperation, by building capacity in established collaborative platforms and in low- and middle-income countries, is imperative to efficiently answering the priority clinical research questions that can change the trajectory of a pandemic.

Background

Earth is currently facing one of its most significant public health crises in modern history. Since the first cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were notified in December 2019, the world has progressively struggled with this novel infection, seeking to understand its epidemiology, clinical significance, optimal patient management, and prevention and control strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality, as well as the socio-economic consequences.

Main text

The initial research requirements in pandemics are predictable. Six weeks after Chinese health authorities announced the discovery of a novel coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) established transmission dynamics, disease severity and immunity, and impact of control and mitigation measures as the main domains of research priorities to guide public health responses to COVID-19 [1]. Previous analysis of the scientific literature on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) identified ten major themes of research inquiry: clinical characterisation; prognosis; diagnosis; clinical management; viral pathogenesis; epidemiological characterisation; infection prevention and control/transmission among healthcare workers; susceptibility in the community; psychosocial impacts of disease and social isolation; and aetiology [2]. When the same research themes were applied to identify deficiencies in the understanding of COVID-19, it was clear that, although progress has been made, large knowledge gaps persist and no published data existed within some of the themes [2].

But how is it possible to study a disease that is so quickly spreading and to rapidly use that research to inform prevention, control, and treatment? In our view, a dilemma with such a wide-reaching impact mandates collaboration on a global scale. International research collaboration (IRC) is the best means to rapidly address these fundamental questions and potentially change the paradigm of data sharing, constrained by several ethical, legal, and social challenges in addition to technical (data quality, harmonization) and organizational hurdles, for the benefit of patients worldwide. Although several studies on IRC in the context of COVID-19 pandemic have been published, including calls to foster IRC, little is known about their effective impact. We therefore present an overview of IRC in COVID-19 including several examples and describing their scope and impact. We also discuss the benefits and challenges of IRCs in general and in the context of the pandemic, with particular attention to the situation in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

In recent years, there has been increasing participation in IRCs in various forms, such as multicentre studies, international registries, evidence synthesis, and Delphi consensus studies for the creation of clinical practice guidelines [3]. These enable researchers to share their knowledge and combine perspectives to solve complex cross-disciplinary problems, creating higher impact outputs and contributing to overcome resource fragmentation. The critical mass to scale data generates power to promptly answer pressing clinical questions with generalizability, applicability, and scientific validity across multiple populations [4]. This value has been confirmed across diseases of all incidences and severities, and is possibly even greater in time-critical settings, such as pandemics [5].

Prior pandemics/epidemics, especially the influenza A H1N1 pandemic in 2009, together with major social and technological developments, resulted in the formation of several platforms to facilitate regional and global collaboration in infectious disease research (Table 1). Such consortia leverage scale, multi-disciplinarity, and data sharing to study a pandemic at its various stages in different countries and predict its course. These platforms help to answer critical clinical, public health, and socio-economic questions and provide important public goods.

Table 1 Examples of international research consortia launched in recent years in the context of infectious disease response

Moreover, the use of shared research methodologies in diverse locations allows direct comparison between distinct populations, as well as over time. Shared databases encourage data completeness, quality control, harmonization, and facilitates data exchange. Finally, collaborative efforts ensure the synchronization of timelines and avoid competition among studies evaluating similar interventions.

COVID-19 has expanded across every LMIC, where the human impact may be greater. IRCs permit research to be conducted in countries that might otherwise lack the necessary resources and/or expertise. Collaborations of LMICs, so-called ‘South-South’ collaboration, such as the Africa Taskforce for Coronavirus (AFTCOR) or the aforementioned PANDORA, are often better placed to find solutions to their specific challenges and needs [17]. They also create a critical mass that facilitates cost-effectiveness, improves retention of talented researchers, and increases visibility and participation globally [17]. Many collaborative networks with LMICs also include high-income partners, referred to as ‘North-South’ collaboration [18]. These ‘North-South’ research collaborations previously demonstrated their utility to create global clinical guidelines taking into consideration the evidence base for interventions and the specific challenges of LMICs [3, 19]. In the case of COVID-19, this has facilitated the initiation and ongoing operations of studies within LMICs [8], including increased access to funding, resources, knowledge and experimental treatments with potentially widespread infectious disease control benefits that transcend geographical and socio-economic borders. Moreover, these IRCs also facilitate the investigation of the impacts of socio-cultural biases that might render policies like social distancing or generalised lockdowns untenable and ineffective and help to assess genetic factors that might influence a population’s susceptibility to the virus and treatment responses [18].

Perhaps the greatest advantages of IRCs for LMICs relate to the enhanced dissemination of findings fostering their global impact. In LMICs, traditional routes of scientific data dissemination have had a disproportionately low impact on healthcare practices, due to inadequate resources or decision-making to implement changes and to the reduced access of many healthcare practitioners to high-profile, English-language journals. IRCs involving multiple countries with different levels of affluence facilitate dissemination beyond traditional routes to include more local and open-access journals, newsletters from professional bodies, and media outlets.

Despite the many advantages of IRCs between high- and LMICs, various obstacles need to be overcome. Obstacles include the disproportionate influence of high-income countries on study agendas, which may skew benefits to their favour; ethical issues regarding inconsistency in the acquisition of patient consent, governance of health research, training of human resources, institutionalisation of scientific activity, access to research funds, and cultural aspects; lack of commitment to capacity building; and prioritization of limited resources to healthcare and other essential services in preference to research [20]. However, the mixed ‘patchwork’ of achievements and failures in COVID-19 response may suggest that higher-income nations are not maintaining their commitment to solidarity and equity [21]. Important measures of success of ‘North-South’ collaborations are not limited to scientific advances, but extend to the identification of priority areas of work, ensuring the sustainability of the interventions and investment in local research capacities [20]. The Global Effort on COVID-19 (GECO) Health Research, launched in May 2020 by the UK National Institute for Health Research, focuses on understanding the pandemic and mitigating its health impacts in LMIC contexts, encouraging project leadership from LMICs. Twenty projects have been funded until now tackling the consequences of COVID-19 in LMICs, focusing on topics such as transmission and infection control, long-term outcomes, and mental health issues [22, 23]. This and other initiatives attempt to balance discrepant access to research funds between high- and LMICs.

Another major obstacle includes the tremendous increase in the volume and complexity of administrative work and the logistics or contractual requirements for ethical data sharing, which may hinder research productivity. Deficiencies in open-data sharing mechanisms have been reported globally, which may be particularly relevant in LMICs [6, 24]. This highlights the urgent need for interoperable, open-data repositories including real-time deidentified data. Besides, issues with methodological aspects when reporting COVID-19 outcomes and risk factors contribute to increased variability across epidemiological studies [25].

Data sharing within a consortium faces barriers of different nature, as previously discussed. In IRCs, ethical and effective data-sharing can only be achieved by considering the interests of all relevant parties: research participants, researchers, and funders [26]. Researchers in LMICs have shown concerns regarding safeguards when handling data, including transfer to others, and possible lack of control over subsequent data use [27]. Efficient data-sharing frameworks and accountable governance, together with the establishment of institutional data access committees, are urgent requirements to ensure sustainable and fair international data sharing [27].

Data linkage infrastructure, allowing direct download of data from electronic medical records into research databases, changes the paradigm of collaborative medical informatics. Efforts toward the harmonization of data from different IRCs have been successfully implemented, for example in the case of COVID-19 dermatology registries [8, 28]. A recently proposed framework for a data-driven systems approach to the collection, management, and analysis of high-quality data to inform decision in managing clinical responses and social measures to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and future health crises is currently under development [29].

There are also inter-personal issues, including the development of trust between investigators. The use of pre-existing networks where IRC is already established allows for that trust component to be integrated before a health crisis. IRC also requires funding, which is often subject to a variety of political influences, especially when it crosses borders. One solution to this issue is the creation of multilateral funding organizations, such as the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) that invests in research in new or re-emerging infectious diseases globally [30].

Despite such limitations, numerous international observational and randomised controlled trials are studying COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated trends in international collaboration thanks to unique information sharing efforts and mobilization of resources [31, 32]. The pre-existing Short Period Incidence Study of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SPRINT-SARI) and the recently formed COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium (CCCC), each incorporating more than 350 hospitals in over 48 countries, have activated tiered data collection-based on-site resources, common case report forms, and global dissemination networks to provide observational data in critical care [8, 30, 33]. The Randomised, Embedded, Multifactorial, Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) is a perpetual multinational trial that simultaneously evaluates interventions across multiple management domains, which can be adapted to evaluate treatment during respiratory pandemics [30]. Several consortia have been created to understand the risks associated with COVID-19 in patients with different comorbidities, such as the Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD) registry, the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (COVID-19 GRA), the European Renal Association COVID-19 Database (ERACODA), the Global consortium study of Neurological Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID) and the Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration (TERAVOLT) [25, 34,35,36,37,38]. Such consortia have also provided crucial data on other topics, ranging from the well-being of healthcare workers during the pandemic to weather and atmospheric factors contributing to COVID-19 transmission and fatality rates [39,40,41].

One of the best examples of multicentre research studies during the pandemic is the Solidarity Trial launched by the WHO. Interim results from the Solidarity Trial, enrolling almost 12,000 patients in more than 400 hospital sites in over 30 countries, revealed that all four treatments evaluated (remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, and interferon) had little or no effect on overall mortality, initiation of ventilation, and duration of hospital stay in hospitalized COVID-19 patients [42]. Solidarity II, a global serologic study for COVID-19 launched by the WHO, will enable standardization of serologic assays worldwide and sharing of scientific protocols, training materials, scientific publications, and survey findings. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), together with the global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the WHO, launched COVAX to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

As the pandemic has spread, the number of centres and investigators willing to work together has also increased, thus extending the reach of the consortium’s impact and the potential positive repercussions for the future. Conversely, new collaborative initiatives continue to emerge and calls for research cooperation with established platforms have been met with variable enthusiasm. By combining efforts, we can improve research efficiency and minimise the burden on participating centres. This work demonstrates the promptness and utility of IRCs during COVID-19, but also highlights several barriers that still need to be overcome to maximize their global benefit. Among them, issues regarding data sharing, quality control, and harmonization; ethical issues; and disparities between high income countries and LMICs emerge as the main obstacles for the success of IRCs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusions

Although the race for treatment and prevention continues, there is no doubt that research collaborations are driving COVID-19 knowledge and response. Facilitating IRC in infectious disease and building capacity in established collaborative platforms are imperative to efficiently answer the priority clinical research questions that can change the trajectory of a pandemic. Several obstacles still need to be overcome to maximize the global benefit of IRCs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

AFREhealth:

African Forum for Research and Education in Health

AFTCOR:

Africa Taskforce for Coronavirus

ALERRT:

African coaLition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training

CCCC:

COVID-19 Critical Care Research Consortium

CEPI:

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations

COVID-19:

2019 Coronavirus disease

ECRAID:

European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases

Gavi:

Global Vaccine Alliance

GECO:

Global Effort on COVID-19

GloPID-R:

Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness

IRC:

International research collaboration

InFACT:

International Forum for Acute Care Trialists

ISARIC:

International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium

LMIC:

low and middle-income country

MERS:

Middle East Respiratory Virus

PANDORA:

Pan-African Network for Rapid Research, Response, Relief and Preparedness for Infectious Diseases Epidemics

PREPARE:

European Union’s Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-) Emerging Epidemics

SARS:

Severe Acute Respiratory Virus Syndrome

SPRINT-SARI:

Short Period Incidence Study of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections

WHO:

World Health Organisation

ZikaPLAN:

Zika Preparedness Latin America Network

References

  1. Cowling BJ, Leung GM. Epidemiological research priorities for public health control of the ongoing global novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Eurosurveillance. 2020;25(6).

  2. Harris C, Carson G, Baillie K, Nair H. An evidence-based framework for priority clinical research questions for COVID-19. J Glob Health. 2020;10(1):011001. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.011001.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Nepogodiev D, Adisa A, Abantanga FA, Ademuyiwa A, Chakrabortee S, Ghosh D, et al. Delphi prioritization and development of global surgery guidelines for the prevention of surgical-site infection. Br J Surg. 2020;107(8):970–7.

  4. Thomson AM, Perry JL, Miller TK. Conceptualizing and measuring collaboration. J Public Adm Res Theory. 2009;19(1):23–56.

  5. The InFACT Global HN Collaboration. InFACT: a global critical care research response to H1N1. Lancet. 2010;375(9708):11–3.

  6. Sam-Agudu NA, Rabie H, Pipo MT, Byamungu LN, Masekela R, van der Zalm MM, et al. The Critical Need for Pooled Data on COVID-19 in African Children: An AFREhealth Call for Action through Multi-Country Research Collaboration. Clin Infect Dis. 2021. p. ciab142. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab142.

  7. ALERRT. African coaLition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training. Available from: https://www.alerrt.global. Cited 2021 May 29.

  8. Li Bassi G, Suen J, Barnett AG, Corley A, Millar J, Fanning J, et al. Design and rationale of the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium international, multicentre, observational study. BMJ Open. 2020;10(12):e041417 Available from: http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/12/e041417.abstract.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Menkis AH, Martin J, Cheng DCH, Fitzgerald DC, Freedman JJ, Gao C, et al. Drug, devices, technologies, and techniques for blood management in minimally invasive and conventional cardiothoracic surgery: A Consensus Statement from the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS) 2011. Innov Technol Tech Cardiothorac Vasc Surg. 2012;7:229–41 Available from: http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&CSC=Y&NEWS=N&PAGE=fulltext&D=emed10&AN=2012683986%3C75.%3E.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Ecraid. European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases. Available from: https://ecraid.eu. Cited 2021 May 23.

  11. ISARIC. International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium. Available from: https://isaric.tghn.org. Cited 2020 Jun 30

  12. PANDORA. the Pan-African Network For Rapir Research, Response, Relief and Preparedness for Infectious Disease Epidemics. Available from: https://pandora.tghn.org. Cited 2020 Jun 30.

  13. PREPARE. Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics. Available from: https://www.prepare-europe.eu. Cited 2020 Jun 30

  14. ZIKAction. Available from: https://zikaction.org. Cited 2021 May 23

  15. ZIKAlliance. Available from: https://zikalliance.tghn.org. Cited 2021 May 23

  16. ZikaPLAN. Zika Preparedness Latin American Network. Available from: https://zikaplan.tghn.org. Cited 2021 May 23.

  17. Boshoff N. South-South research collaboration of countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Scientometrics. 2010;84:481–503.

  18. Chetwood JD, Ladep NG, Taylor-robinson SD. Research partnerships between high and low-income countries : are international partnerships always a good thing? BMC Med Ethics. 2015;16:36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Olayemi E, Asare EV, Benneh-Akwasi Kuma AA. Guidelines in lower-middle income countries. Br J Haematol. 2017;177(6):846–54.

  20. Edejer TT. North-South research partnerships : the ethics of carrying out research in developing countries. BMJ Br Med J Int Ed. 1999;319(August):438–41.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Bump JB, Friberg P, Harper DR. International collaboration and covid-19: What are we doing and where are we going? BMJ. 2021;372:n180.

  22. National Institute for Health Research. Global Effort on COVID-19 (GECO) Health Research - Call Specification. 2020. Available from: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/global-effort-on-covid-19-geco-health-research-call-specification/24832. Cited 2020 Dec 23.

    Google Scholar 

  23. GECO. Global Effort on COVID-19 Health Research. Avaiable from:https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/global-effort-on-covid-19-geco-health-research-call-specification/24832. Cited September 2020.

  24. Curioso WH, Carrasco-Escobar G. Collaboration in times of COVID-19: The urgent need for open-data sharing in Latin America. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2020;27:e100159.

  25. Noordzij M, Vart P, Duivenvoorden R, Franssen CFM, Hemmelder MH, Jager KJ, et al. Pitfalls when comparing COVID-19-related outcomes across studies—lessons learnt from the ERACODA collaboration. Clin Kidney J. 2021;14(1_supp_1):i4–20.

  26. Fernando B, King M, Sumathipala A. Advancing good governance in data sharing and biobanking - international aspects. Wellcome Open Res. 2019;4:184. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15540.1.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Kaewkungwal J, Adams P, Sattabongkot J, Lie RK, Wendler D. Issues and challenges associated with data-sharing in LMICs: Perspectives of researchers in Thailand. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2020;103(1):528–36.

  28. Freeman EE, McMahon DE, Hruza GJ, Irvine AD, Spuls PI, Smith CH, et al. International collaboration and rapid harmonization across dermatologic COVID-19 registries. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2020;83(3):e261–6.

  29. Ros F, Kush R, Friedman C, Gil Zorzo E, Rivero Corte P, Rubin JC, et al. Addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and future public health challenges through global collaboration and a data-driven systems approach. Learn Health Syst. 2021;5:e10253.

  30. Webb SA, Nichol AD. Bending the pandemic curve: Improving decision-making with clinical research. Crit Care Med. 2018;46(3):442–6.

  31. Fry CV, Cai X, Zhang Y, Wagner CS. Consolidation in a crisis: Patterns of international collaboration in early COVID-19 research. PLoS One. 2020;15(7):e0236307.

  32. Kinsella CM, Santos PD, Postigo-Hidalgo I, Folgueiras-González A, Passchier TC, Szillat KP, et al. Preparedness needs research: How fundamental science and international collaboration accelerated the response to COVID-19. PLoS Pathog. 2020;16(10):e1008902.

  33. Dunning JW, Merson L, GGU R, Gao Z, Semple MG, Tran D, et al. Open source clinical science for emerging infections. Lancet Infect Dis. 2014;14(1):8–9.

  34. Brenner EJ, Ungaro RC, Colombel JF, Kappelman MD. IBD in the COVID-19 era: the value of international collaboration. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020;5(10):887–8.

  35. Robinson PC, Yazdany J, Machado PM. Global research collaboration in a pandemic-challenges and opportunities: the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2021;33(2):111–6.

  36. Hilbrands LB, Duivenvoorden R, Vart P, Franssen CFM, Hemmelder MH, Jager KJ, et al. COVID-19-related mortality in kidney transplant and dialysis patients: Results of the ERACODA collaboration. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2020;35(11):1973–83.

  37. Whisenant JG, Trama A, Torri V, De Toma A, Viscardi G, Cortellini A, et al. TERAVOLT: Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration. Cancer Cell. 2020;37(6):742–5.

  38. Frontera J, Mainali S, Fink EL, Robertson CL, Schober M, Ziai W, et al. Global Consortium Study of Neurological Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID): Study Design and Rationale. Neurocrit Care. 2020;33(1):25–34.

  39. Banerjee S, Lim KHJ, Murali K, Kamposioras K, Punie K, Oing C, et al. The impact of COVID-19 on oncology professionals: results of the ESMO Resilience Task Force survey collaboration. ESMO Open. 2021;6(2):100058.

  40. Li W, Thomas R, El-Askary H, Piechota T, Struppa D, Abdel Ghaffar KA. Investigating the Significance of Aerosols in Determining the Coronavirus Fatality Rate Among Three European Countries. Earth Syst Environ. 2020;4:513–22.

  41. Gupta A, Pradhan B, Maulud KNA. Estimating the Impact of Daily Weather on the Temporal Pattern of COVID-19 Outbreak in India. Earth Syst Environ. 2020;4:523–34.

  42. WHO Solidarity Trial Consortium. Repurposed Antiviral Drugs for Covid-19 — Interim WHO Solidarity Trial Results. N Engl J Med. 2021;384:497–511. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2023184.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Drs. Laura Moro and Kevin White for editing assistance.

Funding

Article processing charges funded by The Common Good (an initiative of The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

JPF conceived idea and was the major contributor to writing the original manuscript. SM, JKB, NGO, SW, HD and JFF reviewed, revised and edited manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Authors’ information

All authors are actively involved and lead major international consortia. JPF, NGO, HD and JFF are investigators for the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium (www.covid-critical.com); HD is past president of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (ELSO); JFF is current president of Asia-Pacific ELSO; SM, JKB, NGO, SW, HD are members of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC); SM and SW are members the International Forum for Acute Care Trialists (InFACT); SM is an investigator for the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease (APPRISE) and the Randomised, Embedded, Multifactorial, Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathon P. Fanning.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fanning, J.P., Murthy, S., Obonyo, N.G. et al. Global infectious disease research collaborations in crises: building capacity and inclusivity through cooperation. Global Health 17, 84 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00731-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00731-2

Keywords