Mapping global health research investments, time for new thinking - A Babel Fish for research data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Today we have an incomplete picture of how much the world is spending on health and disease-related research and development (R&D). As such it is difficult to align, or even begin to coordinate, health R&D investments with international public health priorities.</p> <p>Current efforts to track and map global health research investments are complex, resource-intensive, and caveat-laden. An ideal situation would be for all research funding to be classified using a set of common standards and definitions. However, the adoption of such a standard by everyone is not a realistic, pragmatic or even necessary goal.</p> <p>It is time for new thinking informed by the innovations in automated online translation - e.g. Yahoo's Babel Fish. We propose a feasibility study to develop a system that can <it>translate</it> and map the diverse research classification systems into a common standard, allowing the targeting of scarce research investments to where they are needed most.</p