Research and analysis

Enhancing collective impact through a programme approach: lessons from the GCRF

Updated 15 September 2025

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Maximising the impact of international research funding is a central concern for commissioners and policymakers. One promising strategy is the adoption of a programme-based approach, which integrates individual projects into a coherent portfolio aligned around a common challenge. This structure enables more strategic coordination, fosters synergies, and enhances the overall effectiveness of research efforts. Drawing on evidence from the UK government’s £1.5 billion Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), this brief examines what works in practice and explores key lessons for future funding initiatives.

Key takeaways

Build in dedicated time and resources for effective programme foundations

Successful programmes prioritise understanding the context prior to the start of research, fair partnerships, and collaboration with non-academic stakeholders. These elements take dedicated time and resources to establish, and should be built into the Fund’s operational model.

Promote cross-portfolio learning to maximise drivers of impact

Successful programmes maintain a strategic focus on learning across projects and teams. Researchers and partners working in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are the best source of innovative approaches to research challenges. Best practice also encourages peer learning among programme managers, building their skills for adaptive management.

Underpin programmes with active, flexible management processes

Successful programmes require more active programme management than traditional research commissioning, with time to coordinate across projects throughout their life cycle. For GCRF, this investment in staff time created the flexibility and resilience to respond to volatile contexts such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Curate programme knowledge and insights to ensure the Fund’s legacy

Successful programmes plan for continued access to knowledge created by programmes after the end of a fund, through knowledge assets such as policy and learning briefs and a repository of evidence-based insights and lessons. These products help mobilise stakeholder engagement for future initiatives, and sustain interest in the knowledge created. Achieving impact through research and innovation requires time, making this a critical step in maximising the return on investment.

“GCRF’s programme approaches have helped awards and projects to stay focused on their development goals, promoted collaboration and enabled teams to optimise impact. “
GCRF partner

Creating impact through a programme approach

GCRF evaluation evidence highlights 9 qualities of a successful programme approach

1. Creating a shared impact vision, e.g. a theory of change or impact strategy provided a shared goal for the portfolio and ensured a built-in focus on equity, diversity and inclusion.

2. Establishing a brand for the portfolio assisted with engagement, credibility and trust.

3. Commissioning research strategically helped to curate portfolios targeted around opportunities for research impact and uptake. Integrating research-into-use strategies into design from the outset is associated with better outcomes.

4. Funding contextual analysis prior to the start of research enabled research and innovation designs to be tailored to local conditions.

5. Support for fair and equitable partnerships, stakeholder collaboration and network building laid the foundations for durable partnerships and mobilised pathways to impact. Collaboration with multiple partners, particularly with non-academic partners, is strongly associated with greater reporting of outcomes in the GCRF evidence.

6. Funding research and innovation (R&I) projects for a longer time frame (3 to 5 years) allowed time for partnerships, networks and research-into-use processes to be implemented and mature, strengthening their impact potential.

7. Enhancing in-portfolio coherence, building cohorts and promoting peer-to-peer learning and capacity promoted coordination between project teams and cross-learning of best practices – an important driver of collective impact.

8. Adaptive, flexible programme management by funders enabled awards to respond to dynamic contexts and changing conditions in LMICs, promoting ongoing relevance to local needs. A ‘hands-on’ management approach from dedicated staff was key to achieving this.

9. Monitoring, evaluation and learning at programme and project levels supported course correction during implementation, deeper engagement with in-country stakeholders and enhanced effectiveness. This enabled a broad mix of joined-up activities targeted around a specific impact opportunity, e.g. networking and context scoping awards laid the foundations for future awards that integrate research-into-use.

Through their ambition, scale and programme support to interdisciplinary and intersectoral work on development challenges, GCRF’s flagship programmes saw more outcomes than other types of programmes and offered unique opportunities for impactful research and innovation for development.”
GCRF evaluation

What difference did a programme approach make in GCRF?

GCRF included ‘flagship’ large-scale programmes and initiatives, each following a programme approach. GCRF’s flagship programmes were associated with greater outputs and outcomes than other GCRF project portfolios.


The flagship programmes started with conventional processes that were focused mainly on commissioning and grant administration. These processes rapidly evolved into structured programme approaches as it became clear that more strategic, hands-on processes were needed to promote development impact.

These included:

  • cohort building and coordination across portfolios;
  • innovative practices on fairness in partnerships and in-country relationships;
  • support to overcome contextual challenges.

Where the programmes implemented these measures, the evaluation found good evidence of progress towards outcomes and impacts in LMICs, including:

  • new research-informed management practices and strategies being taken up by local stakeholders in their communities and governance institutions;
  • new technical solutions ready for adoption by communities, business and governments; - strengthened research and innovation capacities and networks established in both LMICs and the UK.

Effective programme management was therefore key to impact-oriented portfolios.

The strategic benefits justify the investment in programme-level staff and time to build high-impact cohorts and portfolios.

What do GCRF programme approaches look like?

The Interdisciplinary Hubs Programme

  • Funder: UKRI/Research Councils
  • Value: £150 million, 12 Hubs

Hubs was a 5-year large-scale multi-country investment designed around the principle of equity. Through 12 large-scale collaborative research hubs, experts are brought together across disciplines, sectors and regions. Hubs address challenges such as inclusive ocean governance in the Southern Indian Ocean; accelerating the potential of Africa’s adolescents; childhood stunting; and trade and environment. It focuses on excellent SRTI combined with mobilising stakeholder networks for SRTI update and use.

The Future Leaders, African Independent Research (FLAIR) Programme

  • Funder: Royal Society (RS), with African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
  • Value: £18.3 million, 59 Fellowships, 21 Collaboration awards

FLAIR invested in talented African early career researchers through postdoctoral fellowships, mentoring and collaboration awards. FLAIR provided funding directly to African researchers and their institutions. Topics covered a range of sciences from chemistry and engineering to ecological sciences and microbiology.

The International Partnerships Programme (IPP)

  • Funder: UK Space Agency (UKSA)
  • Value: £152 million, 43 projects

Funded the development of space-based technology and tools to address development challenges. IPP projects tackle development challenges through space technology solutions and supporting in-country capacity development across a range of sectors, including forestry, agriculture, maritime economies and disaster resilience.

Spotlight on impactful GCRF programmes

Innovative programme structures promote fairness in R&I global partnerships and establish new norms for international R&I


Programme: Interdisciplinary Hubs, 2019-2024

Achievements:

The Hubs have built strong, inclusive networks to influence tangible development change at local, national and international levels, e.g. supporting Indigenous people’s legal access to the ocean in South Africa.

Programme processes:

  • Dedicated UKRI Programme Officers provide guidance, aggregate concerns and link up programme cohorts.
  • Features inclusive governance arrangements, including advisory bodies with participation from local partners, community participants and other Hubs.
  • Innovative policies and practices on equity and fairness in partnerships, capacity building, safeguarding, gender equity and inclusion, contextual risk management, and monitoring, evaluation and learning systems.
  • Long-term flexible funding over 5 years to enable responsiveness and help Hub projects to benefit from programme processes, strengthening their implementation and impact potential.

Africa-led programme catalyses strong cohort of early career scientists producing high-quality research on key African issues


Programme: FLAIR, 2019-2022

Achievements:

This unique opportunity gave African talent the chance to build their career within African universities, leading to innovative research outcomes, e.g. one FLAIR Fellow’s insecticide research informed their country’s national malaria programme.

Programme processes:

  • The RS and AAS shared programme management, providing FLAIR fellows with technical and logistical support. This enabled them to overcome contextual challenges and pursue additional funding.
  • Cohort building, collaboration and networking among FLAIR Fellows to share learning and spark new collaborations.
  • Important monitoring, evaluation and learning processes, including theory of change and regular monitoring and reporting (both formal and informal).
  • Provided funding directly to Africa-based fellows, giving them budget control.

Innovation programme demonstrates the value of space technologies for development


Programme: IPP, 2016-2021

Achievements:

IPP teams successfully made the case for using space technologies to address development challenges and delivered important returns on investment. The Forests 2020 project improved forest governance across 300m hectares and helped avoid loss of 4m-6m hectares of forest.

Programme processes:

  • Investment in set-up included support for contextual and local needs analysis, and provision of technical advice and project design.
  • Cohort building and coordination across the portfolio, network building and support to build in-country relationships and pursue additional funding.
  • Innovative policies for day-to-day programme management, including mitigating risks in the context, supporting equitable partnerships, focusing on gender equity, and boosting innovation uptake.
  • Extensive monitoring, evaluation and learning systems are a particular strength, guiding adaptive implementation.

What is the Global Challenges Research Fund?

GCRF ran between 2016 and 2025, and has now closed. Representing £1.5 billion of official development assistance, GCRF aimed to support science, research, technology and innovation that addresses the development challenges faced by low-and middle-income countries. GCRF funding supported both project and programme level approaches.

Evidence from evaluations of the Fund therefore gives us a helpful picture of what difference a programme approach can make. GCRF’s evaluation has been implemented by Itad Ltd.

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