Principal Investigator: Elias Mossialos
Researchers: Victoria Simpkin
Start Date: 10 November 2016
End Date: 10 January 2017
Region: Africa
Keywords: health science research, research capacity, global health, health policy

LSE Health and the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and the US NIH to produce a report for the World Economic Forum 2017. A case was built for incentivising investment in health science research and research capacity in Africa.

Africa accounts for 15% of the global population and 25% of the global disease burden yet only produces approximately 2% of the world’s research output.

The key points in this study found that while current evidence suggests that the aggregate economic impact of health science research is potentially large, most current studies attempting to quantify the impact of health science research focused on industrialised countries and may not be transferrable to the African setting.