Research centre
Welcome to Sightsavers' research website, where you can find information on our latest projects and publications and learn how research is helping to change lives around the world.
Research at Sightsavers
Our research focuses on eye health, neglected tropical diseases, education and social inclusion. We use the evidence we generate to inform Sightsavers’ programmes in the countries where we work.
Research projects
We run research projects worldwide, working with partners to generate evidence with impact.
Our research projects
Published research
We contribute to the global knowledge base by publishing our research results in peer-reviewed journals and reports.
Publications and resources
Evidence gap maps
Our evidence gap maps are a visual tool to present available evidence and highlight gaps for future research.
Evidence gap maps
Our in-house research makes us different
Sightsavers holds Independent Research Organisation (IRO) status. We are one of the only international non-governmental organisations to hold this status in the UK. As an IRO, we are eligible for grants from the seven UK research councils, including the Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.
Our research team is made up of more than 30 people based around the world, with skills ranging from epidemiology and economics to geographic information system mapping and community-based participatory research. Our research activities also extend beyond the team, involving many more people across the organisation as well as our partners.
Research that changes lives
The immediate goal of research at Sightsavers is to generate evidence that our programme teams can use to improve lives around the world.
Bringing research findings to life
We use community-based participatory research approaches which can help break down social injustice and power structures. In our NTD research, we’ve trained frontline health care workers and people living with NTDs to be ‘co-researchers’, and we use local artwork to help bring findings to life for the benefit of people with NTDs, researchers and programme planners.
Find out more about how we’ve been using participatory research to improve people’s lives as part of the COUNTDOWN programme.
Research news and blogs
Sightsavers publishes new eye health research in partnership with RSTMH
The research supplement highlights how non-governmental organisations such as Sightsavers can generate high-quality evidence through their programmes.
Sightsavers partnership aims to research the impact of climate change on NTDs
Sightsavers and the Walker Institute will explore different climate change scenarios to predict areas that will be most affected by neglected tropical diseases in the future.
“A thing of joy”: celebrating seven years of the COUNTDOWN programme
This major research programme, which ended in 2021, has supported people with neglected tropical diseases to speak out about their illnesses and how they would like to be treated.
Sightsavers researcher commended for innovative NTD project
Kareen Atekem's work on a new project to help control and eliminate two neglected tropical diseases has been recognised by the NTD Innovation Prize competition.
Why tackling disability discrimination is key to employment projects
As part of our Connecting the Dots project in Uganda, we tested a new way of boosting employment rates by influencing communities, families and businesses to act more positively toward people with disabilities.
Sightsavers study highlights gaps in research into disability discrimination
The study looked at interventions that have been used to tackle stigma, and highlighted gaps in the evidence base. Researchers are now calling for more effort to be put into filling these gaps.
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