Interdisciplinary collaborations to explore new approaches in health and care
Through years of supporting interdisciplinary research, the Horizons Institute has seen first-hand the impact of bringing together researchers with different perspectives, ideas and background.
Horizons Platform, one of two global programmes supported by Dr David Fine, is designed to develop collaborations that cross disciplinary, institutional and global boundaries. Creating a community of researchers from the Universities of Leeds (UK) and Wits (South Africa), we’ve seen many new ideas, connections and projects emerge.
Our latest exploratory funding scheme will support two projects over 12 months — both aiming to outline potential improvements in health and care. You can read more on both of these below.
Co-designing a frugal, AI-enabled monitoring and evaluation framework for disability and rehabilitation policy implementation in South Africa
Project team: Prof Lisa-Dionne Morris (University of Leeds), Dr Naeema Reis (University of the Witwatersrand), Dr Mughammad Reis (University of the Witwatersrand), Dr Omar Huerta (University of Leeds)
Bringing together expertise in rehabilitation policy, implementation science, health systems research, human-centred design, frugal innovation, and AI-enabled decision support, this project aims to address longstanding challenges in understanding whether disability and rehabilitation policies achieve their intended outcomes.
An interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Leeds, the team will co-design a frugal, AI-enabled monitoring and evaluation framework to support disability and rehabilitation policy implementation in South Africa.
Working closely with government representatives, disability organisations, rehabilitation professionals, World Health Organisation (WHO) partners, and health information specialists, the team will map existing monitoring systems, identify implementation barriers and opportunities, and develop a practical indicator framework and prototype dashboard.
Rather than creating a new artificial intelligence system, the project will explore how existing AI-enabled tools can support data quality checking, pattern identification, visualisation, and decision support in resource-constrained settings.
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The project will generate a concept-level monitoring framework, prototype tools, and a foundation for future implementation research, digital innovation, partnerships, and funding opportunities.
Climate change, cardiometabolic risk, and HIV outcomes in a South African cohort: A mixed methods study
Project team: Dr Will James (University of Leeds), Dr Theresa Munyombwe (University of Leeds), Dr Siphamandla Gumede (Ezintsha/Wits Health Consortium), Dr Samanta Lalla-Edwards (Ezintsha/Wits Health Consortium)
Climate change is increasingly affecting people’s health, particularly in countries such as South Africa where communities face the combined challenges of HIV, rising rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and increasing environmental stressors such as extreme heat, flooding, and changing rainfall patterns.
This collaborative project between the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Leeds will explore how climate-related stressors affect HIV and cardiometabolic health by combining environmental data with clinical information from an existing South African HIV cohort. The study will also include interviews with people living with HIV to better understand how climate-related events affect healthcare access, treatment adherence, and the management of chronic conditions.
By bringing together expertise in climate science, epidemiology, data science, implementation science, and qualitative research, the project will generate new evidence and innovative methods to support climate-resilient health systems. The findings will lay the foundation for larger international research collaborations aimed at improving health outcomes in climate-vulnerable settings.
More opportunities for collaboration
These two projects are the final ones to be funded through the Horizons Platform programme, and will soon join a number of other projects which are in their delivery phases — you can read more about these in our funding announcement blogs:
- Fostering collaboration with global interdisciplinary research teams
- Creating a Platform for interdisciplinary and global collaboration
While this programme no longer has active funding opportunities, there will be plenty of new engagement opportunities through our 2026/27 headline theme Signals: Detecting, predicting and responding to uncertainty. You can find more on Signals, including how to get involved, on the Horizons Institute website.
