In September 2024, RGHI launched the Collaboration Accelerator Award (CAA), a transformative initiative designed to foster transdisciplinary partnerships that advance global hygiene research, policy, and practice. With awards of up to $200,000 over 24 months, the CAA supports innovative collaborations that address critical knowledge gaps, particularly in improving hygiene and health outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable communities. By prioritising projects that deliver actionable insights, the award ensures research is directly translated into scalable interventions and evidence-based policies. 

The CAA aims to fill a vital gap in global hygiene efforts by addressing the lack of coordinated, multidisciplinary approaches, limited focus on marginalised populations, and inadequate funding for early-stage collaborations. It empowers teams to tackle complex hygiene challenges holistically, generating impactful solutions that promote equity and sustainability. By bridging the divide between research and practice, the CAA enhances global progress towards improved hygiene and better health for all. 

RGHI’s approach aims to demonstrate to other funders the critical role we can play in building capacity across the hygiene and health sector.   

We are dedicated to exploring and testing ways to maximise our resources by funding transformative research, strengthening global research capacity, and fostering meaningful collaboration. Despite the immense challenges—such as the two billion people lacking access to safely managed drinking water and the 1.4 million annual deaths from diseases linked to unsafe water, poor sanitation, and inadequate hygiene—we remain both realistic and ambitious. 

We recognise that our funding alone is a small contribution to a vast global issue, but we believe that by working in partnership with others, we can amplify our collective impact and achieve more than we could individually. We are committed to trying new approaches, learning from our efforts, and continuing to work towards our vision: a world where everyone can safely practise hygiene behaviours for better health and wellbeing. 

Through its independent, peer-reviewed process RGHI has selected two projects as recipients of the Collaboration Accelerator Award. These initiatives bring together partners from research, policy, and practice across three continents and five countries, embodying RGHI’s commitment to fostering global collaboration. By uniting diverse expertise and perspectives, these projects evidence our vision of leveraging partnerships to drive transformative public health improvements and advance hygiene practices worldwide. 

We are just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on these awards, and we are excited to announce them soon. Keep up with the latest from RGHI by following us on LinkedIn and BlueSky and exploring our News and Insights page for more research updates.