Malaria Research: An Audit of International Activity

Key points from an audit of international research activity in malaria written in 1996, including a survey identifying practical applications of research findings and future research opportunities.

Main findings

• Malaria research is under-funded relative to the global incidence of the disease - approximately US$42 is invested in research per fatal case - and to research investment in other disease areas
• The UK, and especially the Wellcome Trust, is increasing its support for malaria research, whereas the reverse is true in the USA
• Many countries are involved in malaria research, particularly in more applied research subfields such as epidemiology or intervention trials and health services research
• International publication activity over the last decade, which is low relative to other biomedical fields, was evenly distributed across most categories of malaria research
• The funding agencies that contribute most to malaria research are most frequently cited
• Respondents to an international survey identified Plasmodium genetics and Plasmodium biology as the subfields in which advances in knowledge are most likely over the next five years, while the subfield 'intervention trials and health services research' was considered most likely to benefit from additional resources
• Many respondents in the international survey had personal experience of the practical application of research results, but also identified a number of key obstacles to the uptake of those results.

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