The Bringing Research to Impact for Global Health at Tsinghua (BRIGHT) program was initiated by Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University (VSPH). The BRIGHT program uses partnerships between Tsinghua University and early career researchers working in the public health sectors in developing countries to develop a research network. This network generates knowledge to address global health priorities in developing countries, strengthens the research and scientific capacity of a new generation of leaders in global health research, builds a technical assistance base for providing China's international collaborations in the health sector with strategic choices and evidence-based programming decisions, and ultimately advances the use of evidence to create development impact.

The BRIGHT program mission is to advance the use of the scientific knowledge and evidence-informed interventions of global health to create development impact in developing countries.

Reflecting the aims set out above, and building on a well-established set of institutional connections and commitments to working together, BRIGHT Network comprises three core activities: capacity building; support for and coordination of global health research; and the provision of scientific advice to China's international collaborations in the health sector. These activities are closely related and interdependent.

CAPACITY BUILDING

At the heart of the BRIGHT Network's capacity building activities is its innovative BRIGHT Grant, which is a competitive awards mechanism for the provision of small grants to enable early career researchers in developing countries to conduct small scale, locally relevant research projects with Tsinghua mentors. The BRIGHT Grant is complemented by the annual network meeting, which provides additional support and training for grant recipients and other network members, as well as nurtures collaborative research projects and peer support.

FACILITATING AND COORDINATING GLOBAL HEALTH RESEARCH

The BRIGHT Network provides a robust and flexible platform for global health research in two main ways. Firstly, through its BRIGHT Grant important locally-relevant research ideas are identified and nurtured as small ‘seed’ projects, with the aim that these will go on to form the basis for grant applications for larger collaboration projects between Tsinghua mentors and the network members. Secondly, through the institutional connections and commitments to working together it establishes, the BRIGHT Network is capable of generating collaborative global health research in developing countries with international impact.

SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT AND ADVICE

The third component of the BRIGHT Network's research platform is the provision of scientific support and advice for China's international collaborations in the health sector. This is provided in many different ways. Perhaps the most innovative of these is that building the BRIGHT Grant recipient organizations as the technical assistance center and implementation base where local researchers present their work and, together with Tsinghua mentors and other BRIGHT Network members, identify, analyze, and address global health issues through collaborations between China and other developing countries.