€6m funding boost for development research from Research Council of Finland and Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

The Research Council of Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland have granted funding for nine research projects within a call for applications that was launched under the Academy Programme for Development Research, DEVELOP2. The programme provides funding for multidisciplinary and problem-driven research that describes and interprets dimensions of development, helps understand obstacles to development and finds ways in which those obstacles can be removed.

The aim of the programme is to produce knowledge that can help solve problems related to, for example, health, natural resources, the economy and education. Within development research, there is also a need for knowledge on how international, national and cultural systems work and on the limitations that these systems present to and the opportunities they offer for development.

The nine funded projects comprise eleven research teams, which will start work in early September 2023. Of the nine projects, five are funded by the Research Council of Finland and four by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. DEVELOP2 is a continuation of the DEVELOP programme, which ran from 2018 to 2023.

The five research projects that received funding from the Research Council of Finland explore a wide range of topics: sustainable use of plants in the fight against infectious diseases; intergenerational cycle of health and development of vulnerable newborn children; threat of infectious diseases in the changing environment of East Africa; sustainable use of edible bushcrickets to improve food security in East Africa; and pathways for women’s empowerment in Nepal’s changing music culture.