TDR Business Plan 2008-2013

Overview

Vision and Strategy

TDR's renewed vision for the next 10 years is to foster: “An effective global research effort on infectious diseases of poverty, in which disease endemic countries play a pivotal role”. In order to achieve the new vision, TDR will use a three-pronged strategy to: provide a collaborative framework and information service for research partners; empower scientists from Disease Endemic Countries (DECs) as research leaders; and support research on neglected priority needs. This implies three major strategic functions for TDR:

• Stewardship for research on infectious diseases of poor populations: a major new role as facilitator and knowledge manager to support needs assessment, priority setting, progress analysis and advocacy, and to provide a neutral platform for partners to discuss and harmonize their activities.
• Empowerment of researchers and public health professionals from DECs moving beyond traditional research training to build leadership at the individual, institutional and national levels so countries can better initiate and lead research activities, develop a stronger presence in international health research and effectively use research results to inform national/ regional policy and practice.
• Research on neglected priority needs that are not adequately addressed by other partners. This will focus on three research functions:
• Foster innovation for product discovery and development
• Foster research on the development and evaluation of interventions in real-life settings
• Foster research for access to interventions