We undertake research and policy engagement that shows how systems can be transformed to support people everywhere to lead healthier, well-nourished and more fulfilling lives.
Our work brings new understanding and action on tackling epidemics, zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance. We are helping to address the health and nutrition implications of trends such as rapid urbanisation or the rise of digital technology, as well as looking at the challenges caused by globalised and inequitable food systems and the need for fairer agricultural livelihoods.
Our research fosters transformational learning for more effective and adaptive nutrition and health programmes and policies using innovative, complexity-aware approaches to evaluation.
Grassroots projects provide more dignified alternative to food banks, research suggests
22 May 2025
Food Equity Centre
A collaboration of researchers across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America working to challenge the power and politics that make food systems inequitable.
Learn more
Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP)
A global network of social scientists focusing on the social dimensions of emergency responses related to health, conflict, or the environment.
Learn more
ARISE Hub
A project which aims to catalyse change in approaches to enhancing accountability and improving the health and wellbeing of poor, marginalised people living in informal urban settlements in Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Sierra Leone.
Learn more
Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration
Research to help improve the lives of the poorest residents of cities in Africa and Asia by focusing on how they are meeting their basic needs and accessing infrastructure, particularly when they are living 'off-grid'.
Learn more
Antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases
Contributing new evidence, analysis and knowledge brokering that can help address health threats that are complex both in their origins and how they play out in the world.
Learn more
Livelihoods for sustainable rural futures
Research to understand dimensions of livelihoods resilience in rural areas, particularly around agricultural food systems.
Learn more
MA Food and Development
Gain an advanced understanding of the complex relationship between food and development through this Masters, delivered through a partnership between the University of Sussex and IDS.
Learn more
Explore our research
Find out more about our work in health and food systems.
Sign up to our newsletters
Keep up to date by registering for our Health and Nutrition newsletter.
The global debate on balancing incentives for innovation in the pharmaceutical industry and facilitating competition for greater access to affordable medicines and vaccines has intensified in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drug discovery and…
May 2025
This policy briefing looks at six case studies from the POTENCIAR programme, implemented in Mozambique’s health sector. It highlights lessons for governance programmes and discusses how POTENCIAR’s interventions facilitated knowledge-sharing, participatory planning, institutional coordination, and…
May 2025
People with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression (SOGIE) are a hard-to-reach population. This is because of restrictive legal frameworks, social exclusion, stigma and discrimination in service delivery. Because people with diverse SOGIE…
May 2025
This paper draws on an international research collaboration to examine grass-roots innovations in food provisioning in five urban locations: Brighton & Hove, UK; Toronto, Canada; Montpellier, France; São Paulo, Brazil; and Cape Town, South Africa.…
May 2025