From Mpox to Climate Health: R2HC’s plans for humanitarian challenges in 2025

A Research Forum, responding to mpox, an update on our funding, and more… 2025 promises to be a busy year for our Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) programme.

The humanitarian health community currently finds itself at an impasse: we look towards another year of multiplying, intensifying health crises, while funding for research and innovation (R&I) that could support the response becomes increasingly restrictive.

In the face of growing global need and stretched capacity, it’s more crucial than ever that we demonstrate the value and potential of R&I to inform and improve humanitarian response. Our R2HC programme has identified five key priorities for the year ahead, to help maximise the impact of our grantees’ work, and provide opportunities to support, collaborate and convene with colleagues across the sector.

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1. Responding to critical ongoing and emerging challenges for humanitarian health

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Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Next year, we’ll share findings from our latest research priority setting for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). This work follows our previous research priority settings on non-communicable diseases, WASH and mental health and psychosocial support.

A basic human right, access to SRHR services is often under-prioritised in times of crisis, despite heightened need. The team conducting this work have consulted extensively with SRHR practitioners and specialists at the regional level, and we look forward to sharing what critical research and innovation gaps they identify.

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Food Insecurity and Undernutrition

Building on the evidence synthesis we published this year, 2025 will mark the next stage of our work to strengthen the prevention of undernutrition in humanitarian settings. We’ll be working with food insecurity and nutrition specialists to develop a framework and guidance on effective resources and interventions for addressing undernutrition. The tool is designed to support humanitarian agencies to deliver prevention packages that tackle the drivers of undernutrition in different contexts. Into 2026, we’ll be launching a call for academic-humanitarian partnership teams to test the tool in emergency settings.

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Mpox

In 2025, we plan to support rapid social and behavioral science research in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to strengthen community resilience against the ongoing mpox outbreak.

We have been working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to scope out possible research opportunities and potential partners to help strengthen the mpox response in the DRC. In November, we co-hosted a meeting in Kinshasa with the Africa CDC, Global Health EDCTP3 and WHO which brought together social and behavioral science expertise and key response actors from the six most affected countries in the Africa region. The meeting focused on how to keep communities at the center of the current mpox response – a report from this meeting will be available soon.

As the situation develops, we will ensure that our funding meets the most critical needs of the mpox response.

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2. Preparing for our Research Forum

In May 2025, we will host our Research Forum in partnership with the African Population Health and Research Centre (APHRC), and alongside the Fogarty International Institute’s Global Forum on Humanitarian Health Research. Taking place in Nairobi, the theme will be: Bridging Global Health Research and Humanitarian Response in a Climate-Impacted World. We’re currently reviewing the applications from our recent Call for Contributors and building the agenda with our partners and Steering Committee.

In the run-up to the event, we plan to hold a series of webinars aligned to the four key objectives of the Forum. The first of these was held in November, in partnership with Fogarty, and fell under our objective to “galvanise action on evidence gaps for climate-induced health impacts”. The webinar built on the findings from our 2024 report identifying linkages between the climate crisis and humanitarian health, and sparked conversations we hope to continue at the event and beyond.

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3. Our funding and support for grantees

Due to the timeframes of our current funding agreements, we will not be launching an annual research call in 2025. As we explore possibilities for new research funding, we’ll continue to work with current and former grantees to help maximise the impact of their grants.In the past year we’ve worked with many grantees to showcase and facilitate further engagement with their research. A few highlights include:

• A webinar on Menstrual Hygiene Management
• Promoting a new tool and e-learning course to support patient rehabilitation after traumatic injury
• Interviewing a grantee about their study on extreme heat in Pakistan for our blog
• Spotlighting Self Help+ on World Mental Health Day

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4. Showcasing the successes and learnings of R2HC-funded studies

We’ll continue to build our collection of Research Impact Case Studies, drawing on lessons and insights from a range of research projects, and identifying the successful strategies and enabling factors that allow evidence to influence humanitarian policy, practice, knowledge, and capacity.

We’ll be further unpacking these strategies and enablers via our Research Impact Framework and exploring ways to communicate them to a wider and more global audience of researchers, funders and humanitarian agencies.

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5. Identifying opportunities to bridge research and innovation

We understand the connections between research and innovation (R&I) and have spent a lot of time considering how best to unite them within the humanitarian system. In 2025, we’ll bring this thinking into reality, enhancing communication across our innovation and research teams, providing greater alignment of our different grantee support tools and sharing the findings from an exploratory report on R&I opportunities for WASH climate adaptation. Our ambition is that this will pave the way for a joint research and innovation call in 2026.

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Please reach out to us at [email protected] for more information on our work – or to share your thoughts and feedback.

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