Mapping ODA research and innovation (MODARI)

Map of ODA research and innovation projects

Data last updated: 31st Jan 2024

Statement from Professor Charlotte Watts (Chief Scientific Advisor and Director for Research and Evidence at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO):

‘By giving us a much better picture of the ODA R&D landscape across UK funders, MODARI is proving to be a valuable information tool for colleagues based in the UK, in our overseas network, and our partners in ODA-eligible countries. MODARI should be viewed as a priority, and I am keen to see how the platform evolves. Huge thanks to the MODARI team.’

Improvements made with the Jan ’24 update:

1. An active/closed project filter, as well as including projects that ended up to five years ago. By default the dashboard is set to only show active projects, but closed projects can be added back in using the filter.

2. ~800 new DHSC Global Health Research partnership projects, of which ~80 are currently active.

3. A second UK-only map figure is shown, to better highlight the distinction between the UK and non-UK footprint.

4. Launch of a MODARI user feedback form.

Click on the image of the map below to view the Tableau dashboard of current and past research and innovation activity across UK government funders, with drop-down menus to filter by:

Primary funder: lead UK government funder
Fund: ODA fund name

Delivery partner: the external partner conducting or managing the project
Country: beneficiary countries or country location of the research/innovation project (the “select geography type” filter allows toggling between the two)

A search bar can be used to look for keywords in the project title/description.

There are 2 ways users can interact with the MODARI data:

Using the Tableau dashboard (click image of map below), download data from within the Tableau window – designed for users who only want data on certain countries.
Download the full underlying dataset here – designed for users who want to use and manipulate the full dataset for their own analyses.

Click on the image of the map below to explore the MODARI dashboard

Data caveats

For FCDO projects, due to currently limited availability of partner project data, both funder and partner data have been included to avoid information gaps where possible. As such, care may be needed to avoid double counting these activities if both the funder and delivery partner are included in analyses. The fields ‘funder programme ID’, ‘funder project ID’ and ‘delivery partner ID’ allows the user to view projects funded under the same funder or delivery partner IATI/DevTracker programme/project ID, where known.

Many external partners receive funding from multiple organisations for their projects, some of which may be non-UK ODA. This should be considered when totaling UK ODA investment across projects. Projects labelled as belonging to the funds “FCDO Research – Partnerships” and “Global Health Research – Partnerships” are more likely to include non-UK ODA.

Missing data

Some data on beneficiary countries and names/countries of partner organisations is missing as this is not always available in public data. As of the January 2024 update, there is less missing data, and work to increase coverage across UK government funders and delivery partners will continue.

Who is this designed for?

This is a public resource designed for a wide range of stakeholders:

Country-based development staff – to find projects with a focus on your country or involving local partners
ODA data analysts in government – to see their organisation’s R&I portfolio mapped in a single place and download data
Research institutions – to look for existing projects on a thematic area to inform your organisation’s research planning

Archived datasets

Download July 2023 MODARI data here

Download December 2021 MODARI data here

Mapping ODA Research and Innovation (MODARI) Interactive Map – Database and User Guide

There has been a long-standing need for more joined up information on research and innovation activities funded by UK Official Development Assistance (ODA). In 2021, UKCDR worked across UK government funders and their delivery partners to improve the availability and consistency of data on funded projects. This work has continued in 2023.

An interactive map can be found on the UKCDR website (on the MODARI Data Tool tab), which can be used to search active ODA projects by country, funder and partner, and download the data in Excel.

We have recorded a demo video demonstrating how users should navigate the dashboard, which is shown below.

In addition to the demo video, we have produced a written guide with instructions and visual tips on how to pull out data at different levels: Tableau R&I project map user guide

What is MODARI?

UKCDR is leading a project working to improve the availability and consistency of data on ODA-funded research and innovation across UK government funders and implementing partners.

MODARI has three specific areas of focus:

ODA funding calls (browse the UK ODA Funding Overview here for signposting to funders’ websites, and the Funding Calls page here to find a selection of specific funding opportunities)
ODA–funded projects (click on the Data Tool tab to explore the dashboard of UK ODA R&I activities)
Results of ODA-funded projects (work commencing in 2024)

Why are we working on this?

UKCDR has delivered several analyses on ODA-funded research and innovation, for example, UK ODA and Wellcome-funded research capacity strengthening in LMICs. We understand the challenges and opportunities associated with cross-funder datasets perhaps better than any other organisation. We strongly believe that timely, reliable data are key for a coherent, impactful approach to funding development research.

Active ODA-funded projects

To ensure that data can be collated across organisations and made accessible to a wide range of stakeholders, we have built on funders’ existing IT systems and ODA reporting processes. This has involved agreeing common information to collect and coordinating regular updates to a database of ODA projects. The data fields were chosen to balance range of potential portfolio analyses with data collection feasibility across organisations.

We are encouraging stakeholders to use this tool, as it makes it possible to view cross-government ODA portfolios in a single place, allowing for quicker country/thematic analyses and for use of this data in ODA planning. Iterative improvements to data coverage will continue and we welcome feedback on improvements to this page. Please email us at modari@ukcdr.org.uk if you have any suggestions.