Health research, development and innovation capacity building, enhancement and sustainability

Abstract Research, development and innovation (RDI) encompasses undertaking research to contribute to new knowledge, developing policies, and generating products and services. Building health RDI capacity should be informed by the developmental gap, required resources and the impact. Low- and middle-income countries often face barriers to reaching their RDI potential. To address some of the RDI challenges, a framework is presented for building, enhancing and sustaining health RDI capacity at the researcher, department and faculty, institution and government dimensions, which is unpacked at the construct, expand, team, gear and leverage phases. Existing and new health RDI capacity requires building, enhancing and sustaining (constructing) before improving, refining and growing RDI expertise and portfolios (expanding). Collaborative RDI networks and robust partnerships should then be established (teaming) and researchers nurtured, with resources optimized to secure investments for embarking on new activities (gearing). Harnessing the collective RDI collaborations and partnerships leads to greater global competitiveness and sustainability (leveraging). Capacity building, enhancement and sustainability in health RDI addresses health challenges that contributes to improving health, economy and societal outcomes.