Research

Overview

Global health focuses on health issues that concern many countries, ranging from domestic health disparities to cross-border issues. Global health embraces the full breadth of important health threats, from infectious diseases and maternal and child health, through to non-communicable diseases and environmental and transnational determinants of disease. Many health threats are shaped by increasing global interconnectedness from rapid travel and communication, and economic interdependency.

Global health seeks to address health disparities through partnership, pooling of experience and knowledge, and collaborative efforts between groups and countries. Global health problems are often complex, requiring multi-disciplinary teams to work towards solutions and welcoming a range of perspectives and ideas.

Fostering partnership to help solve global health problems

New Zealand, or Aotearoa in te reo Māori, is a small nation in the South Pacific that aspires to be a good global citizen. We work to incorporate indigenous understanding or mātauranga Māori into our relationships and partnerships with others. OGHI harnesses both technical and collaborative strengths across the Divisions, Schools, and Departments of the University of Otago to make them available to share with partners as we seek together to find solutions to complex global health problems.

In addition to the OGHI network of researchers across the University of Otago, we work with partners within New Zealand and abroad. These relationships underpin a range of collaborative research projects, and are often linked to postgraduate student opportunities and other development activities.

• University of Otago collaborations
• International collaborations
• Study with us

Otago Global Health Institute Seed Grant programme

The Otago Global Health Institute (OGHI) works collaboratively with researchers in all four divisions at the University of Otago and with under-resourced populations across the globe to conduct research that addresses their most pressing health problems. We annually invite funding applications to support eligible research initiatives in line with this focus.

Applications for the 2026 Seed Grant programme have now closed.