Climate Change and International Development Research Project Tracker

Date of last update: 14th February 2025

What data is included in the tracker?

Data from any research funder may be included subject to the following eligibility criteria:

Research projects with a clear and substantial focus on climate change
Research projects with a focus on international development
Research projects that were first awarded funds during the five-year financial year period between 2018/19 – 2022/2023.

Please consult the full methodology for further information, including the definitions used.

Data from 19 research funders were included in the initial version of the tracker. It is intended to obtain data from a greater number of research funders with subsequent updates to the tracker.

What information can I expect to find in the tracker?

The tracker and underlying dataset contain grants data on funded climate change research projects with a focus on international development. To add value to the collected data, a small number of additional were assigned to each project (using a semi-automated approach). These were:

Any relevant (13 of 17) UN Sustainable Goal
Geographic tags (countries, regions, income group, small islands and developing states)
Climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The SDGs were chosen as a thematic framework to demonstrate the interlinkages and multi-/inter-/trans- disciplinarity of climate change research.

There were no limits to the number of SDGs an individual project could be assigned but projects were only categorised against 13 of the 17 SDGs. This is because all projects in the tracker are deemed relevant to SDG 13 (via climate change) and SDGs 1, 10, and 17 (via international development). It was decided against assigning each project against these SDGs as this would make it more difficult to draw out key messages from the data clearly.

Please consult the full methodology for further information.

How often is the tracker updated?

It is intended for the tracker to be updated on a six-monthly basis with additional data (including new projects from funders already included in the database and additional funders whose data have not yet been captured).

Data caveats

The variety of data sources used means the data features varying levels of quality and completeness. This is particularly the case for data on financial information where this is missing for several research projects. It was decided that projects without grant amounts would still be included as this would otherwise lead to an underrepresentation of funded activity.

It is important to note that the financial information provided reflects grant amounts committed to the lead institution managing the grant. While the lead institution may then disburse funds to partner institutions, including those in other countries, it is not possible to obtain figures on this type of financial flow and in-country expenditure, and should not be interpreted as such.

The varying levels of data completeness, particularly qualitative data, may also hinder the accuracy of the semi-automated processes used. It is therefore acknowledged that the use of such semi-automated techniques may result in relevant projects failing to meet the eligibility criteria, the inclusion of unrelated projects, and/or the mislabelling of included projects against certain tags. The semi-automated nature of these tagging and classification processes may also lead to projects being tagged incorrectly – either by being assigned a non-relevant tag (false positive) or not being assigned a relevant tag (false negative). These processes are being continuously revisited and refined.

Full methodology

The full methodology for the tracker can be accessed here.

There is also an associated annex of keywords available for users to access. The file can be downloaded as .an .xls workbook here.

Using the dashboard

The dashboard features four groups of visualisations to provide further insights into the climate change and international development research funding landscape, separated by four tabs:

Overview – provides information on the number of grants, known funding amounts, and number of grants by SDG.
Project Table – presents the data in a tabular format.
Project Map – visualises the research grants by country (for the tracker, country information is determined by the location of the lead institution, the location of the research, the country of focus of a research project, and/or the country is mentioned in a project’s abstract).
Timelines – provides information on the number of grants, known funding amounts, and number of grants by SDG according to the start year of a research project.

The dashboard also features a set of global filters that carry across the different visualisations, namely by funder, funder location, and type of project. Additional filters are also available on a selection of visualisations such as by country, region, income groups, and SDGs.

Users may also take advantage of a search bar, allowing for the searching of keywords against the titles or abstracts of projects.

How to interact with the data

Users interested in certain themes/countries/funders, etc. may download specific subsets of data from the dashboard by applying different filters.

Alternatively, the full underlying dataset may also be downloaded by clicking here – designed for users who want to use and manipulate the full dataset for their own analyses.

What is this data tool?

This tool is an interactive dashboard visualising grants data on climate change research, with a focus on Low– and Middle–Income countries (LMICs) between 2018 and 2023. The dashboard features a number of visualisations and filters to allow for a deeper insight into the research funding landscape, including across geographies, thematic areas, and time.

The tracker contains grants data from an initial list of 19 funders. It is intended to obtain data from a greater number of research funders with subsequent updates to the tracker.

Why are we working on this?

The UK is committed to being a leader in several areas, including tackling climate change, addressing international development challenges, and promoting global science. This commitment is reflected in key and recent policy documents such as the 2021 Integrated Review, the 2022 International Development Strategy, and the 2023 International Development White Paper which outline several ambitions, including to double the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) contribution by 2026. Additionally, UK funders have a long history of supporting high-impact research on climate change and international development. However, the urgency and complexity of the climate crisis requires the adoption of more coordinated approaches at a research funding level.

The aim of the tracker is to act as a live database of funded climate change research projects with a focus on LMICs to support funders and researchers in delivering a more effective and coherent response to the global challenges presented by climate change.

The tracker expands on UKCDR’s previous work in data mapping, analysis, and foresight.