NIHR Global Health Research Centre for NCDs and environmental change hosts its 3rd annual symposium

New Delhi: The NIHR Global Health Research Centre (GHRC) for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Environmental Change (EC) hosted its 3rd Annual Symposium in Hyderabad.

With a focus on “Scaling Research Impact at the Nexus of Environment and Health,” the symposium brought together global experts, policymakers, and researchers from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, to address the challenges, successes, and the road ahead for environmental research while advocating on the need for equitable and sustainable research.

In the footsteps of the previous year’s successes which included the launch of the New Research Leader (NRL) program to foster early-to-mid-career researchers as they transition into torch bearers driving research impact, the launch of the SMARThealth heat tool that aims to support ASHA workers, and the resounding participation of the communities at the different research sites in the co-creation of interventions, alongside strengthened capacity-building initiatives and expanded policy engagement, the annual symposium delved deep into its journey and strategic direction for the future.

Partners exchanged best practices during the symposium, emphasizing scalable and sustainable interventions designed to fortify health systems and deepen community engagement. Notably, the meeting celebrated remarkable achievements in collaborative research, capacity-building initiatives, and policy advocacy, setting a clear path for a unified approach to scaling impactful interventions. The discussions powerfully underscored the urgent need to tackle common challenges in implementation of scalable solutions to address the threats of climate change to health, including the increasing frequency and severity of heat waves, water salinity, the effects of plastic burning on public health, and the critical concern of ensuring access to healthy and sustainable food. Challenges considered included resource constraints, operational bottlenecks, and the complexities of policy dynamics in diverse contexts.

Among the key outcomes explored, participants unanimously prioritized crucial goals for the fourth year, emphasizing the timely and inclusive implementation of the co-designed interventions across the centre’s focus countries, the expansion of impactful interventions through advocacy and thought leadership, the enhancement of research capacities, and the advancement of meaningful policy dialogue for lasting change. Actionable plans were agreed upon to prioritize collaborative research across countries, foster effective knowledge sharing, and strengthen partnerships for mobilizing essential resources. Participants also pinpointed innovative pathways to enhance communication and learning across borders, committing to structured dialogue mechanisms for the exchange of research findings, operational insights, and policy outcomes.

Dr Devarsetty Praveen, Program Director, NIHR GHRC for NCDs and EC said, “At the NIHR GHRC, we are committed to generating actionable, policy-relevant evidence that improves health outcomes and reduces inequities in a cost-effective manner, ensuring a healthier and more sustainable future for everyone. Central to our work is empowering and engaging the communities we serve. Our research priorities have been co-developed with local communities and primary healthcare professionals in India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia who have actively collaborated with our research teams to design, implement, and evaluate context-specific interventions. By striking a careful balance between developing cutting –edge technological tools for healthcare delivery, water salinity adaptation, and heat exposure protection, while introducing farming-based interventions to enrich nutrition quality and dietary diversity, the Centre demonstrates that for research to be truly equitable, it needs to be agile, robust, and grounded in real-world feasibility”

Setting the context for the symposium, Prof Vivekanand Jha, Co-lead of the Centre, said “LMICs face dual, intertwined challenges of a rapidly growing burden of NCDs and the existential threat of global environmental change. Our Centre remains steadfast in its focus on identifying sustainable solutions to address this dual challenge, and encouraging conversations and learning from among our research partners, policymakers, and healthcare workers. The communities we work with have been central to our aim of promoting a high-quality, sustainable, culturally appropriate, and locally relevant research agenda.”

A key panel discussion “From Evidence to Action – Integrating Health in Environmental Governance,” moderated by Prof. Christopher Millett from Imperial College London, explored how research findings can and should lead to actionable impact to prioritise Health within Environmental Governance for an equitable and sustainable future. Prof. Millett, a co-lead of the Centre, underscored the global footprint of the Centre’s research when he said, “The Centre supports the participating institutions to develop their capacity to deliver the high quality, trans-disciplinary research that policy makers and communities need to reduce the impact of climate change on health in our focus countries and beyond.”

The symposium brought together not just global experts and subject –matter advocates, it also provided a forum for community voices to be heard and acknowledged. Community representatives brought the importance of community-driven initiatives to the fore through shared stories of challenges, successes, and transformative moments from the field. Demonstrations and visual storytelling through submitted videos and testimonies from field sites showcased how communities are co-creating interventions to rebuild ecosystems, strengthen food systems, and improve biodiversity conservation.

As the symposium progresses, participants will explore scalable interventions, innovative healthcare models, and strategies to build resilience and strengthen research capacity in LMICs. Key plenary sessions include interactive discussions between early career researchers on the challenges they have identified during field research. And, an engaging fireside chat, moderated by Laura Downey, The George Institute for Global Health, with Chris Mary Kurian, The George Institute for Global Health, Asri Maharani, University of Manchester, and Vidhya Venugopal, Sri Ramachandra Institute for Higher Education, exploring different career stages and contexts to investigate the challenges, facilitators, and build a roadmap for an inclusive future.