“The issues covered by Health Research Policy and Systems are becoming of ever greater importance with the increasing realisation that major improvements not just in health, but also health systems, can be achieved through the funding and utilisation of relevant and timely research. There is a growing focus both on ways in which health research systems are best organised to achieve impacts, and on demonstrating and evaluating the enormous benefits that can come from health research. This whole field is being given a further boost by the exciting news that The World Health Report 2012, on the theme of 'No Health Without Research', will concentrate on providing practical guidance to countries on how health research leads to better health. Therefore, the role of Health Research Policy and Systems becomes even more important as a vehicle for publishing articles, reviews and commentaries on these and related issues.”

Dr Tikki Pang
Director, Research Policy and Cooperation Department, WHO
Founding Editor, Health Research Policy and Systems

“Developing country actors in the health sector need to direct the scarce resources available to them with the support of the best research evidence to address the increasingly globalized and complex health systems that need to respond to ever more diversified and urgent health needs. Scaling-up health interventions for the control of diseases of poverty is now being supported with massive financial support from agencies such as the Global Fund and GAVI. Research evidence is needed now more than ever to ensure that growing support is used effectively and that it leads to stronger health systems. Evidence-informed policy making will be possible only in the context of capable health research systems that respond to needs, produce robust evidence in a timely manner, and is demanded as a basic input for policy making.”

Dr Miguel A. Gonzalez Block
Director of the Centre for Health Systems Research at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health

“It is an exciting time for those of us who have been conducting research for many years into both how to assess the paybacks from health research (including improved health policies, better healthcare and increased health equity), and how to organise research systems to maximise such impacts. In many individual countries, and in key international organisations, there is currently a much greater appreciation of the benefits that can come from analysing the utilisation of health research and increasing understanding about each of the various activities that can contribute to achieving effective health research systems.”

Dr Stephen Hanney
Professor in the Health Economics Research Group, Brunel University, London