This research aims to provide evidence and conclusions for the two key issues of the Global Action Plan, namely: scaling up innovation – identifying catalytic actions for national and international organisations to work together to achieve scale and impact; and elevating country priorities – consulting directly with countries to create better alignment between national needs and internationally commissioned research and innovations.

From across 22 low- and middle-income countries and one high-income country, we identify institutions, individuals and their roles, and routine systems that are used to assess, prioritise and translate country healthcare needs into innovations – through both policies and practices. We also distil key enablers and look at barriers to the innovation sequence from conceptual blueprints, through incubation and trials to determine their feasibility, to the scale-up of successful pilots into larger (and possible national-level) roll-outs.