Study title

United Kingdom, Europe

Individual

GCRF grants were scoped using information on the UKRI gateway to research (GtR: https://gtr.ukri.org/). GCRF grants were excluded if their primary research aim was mental health, i.e. which were classified on GtR as ‘Mental Health’ Research Topic or Health Category (N = 36). The remaining grants, awarded from the beginning of the GCRF programme towards the end of 2015 until the end of May 2020, were sampled for diversity across research council, GCRF strategic challenge portfolio, and world region: Africa, Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/regional-offices). Where sample diversity allowed, closed (total pool N = 484) rather than active (total pool N = 740) grants were selected for completeness of available GtR information. Differentiation of lead organisation and Research Category was also sought (final N = 36). The principal investigator (PI) of each of the 36 grants was emailed an invitation to take part in an interview. All who expressed interest were interviewed. One reminder email was sent to PIs of projects that would increase the diversity of our interview sample, specifically male PIs, PIs in LMIC, and PIs of STFC grants. This secured 11 interviews with UK PIs (one jointly with the grant research assistant), one with a co-investigator based in the UK at the time of the grant, and one with a non-UK-based PI. We snowball sampled by asking each of these interviewees to introduce us to a non-UK-based collaborator. In this way, we secured a further five interviews and snowballed again to a sixth. We then used our own GCRF networks and returned to the GtR to close gaps in our sampling, securing a further four interviews and snowballing to a fifth. Our networks and snowballing provided us access to two non-UK-based collaborators who are experts in mental health and it was decided to undertake these interviews to add this perspective to the project. In total, we conducted 13 UK-based interviews and 13 non-UK-based interviews across 18 GCRF grants, two of the non-UK-based interviewees associated more tangentially with the GCRF programme as networked collaborators. Interviewing stopped when sampling for diversity across relevant variables was met. The interviewer reviewed the information sheet, answered questions, and took verbal consent to take part in the study and to be recorded. A semi-structured format was used such that the interviewer covered pre-planned areas relevant to the research question, while using follow-ups to elicit further detail and facilitating the interviewee to lead the topical flow. The following questions were always covered: Can you tell me about your involvement in GCRF/international development work?; To what extent is there potential to incorporate mental health impact into the kind of work you do?; What do you see as the main challenges of incorporating mental health impact into the kind of work you do?; How might these challenges be overcome?; What support would enable you to incorporate mental health impact in your work?; To what extent do you think there is an appetite to incorporate mental health impact into the kind of work you do? Each interview lasted around one hour.