GACD: A look to the future

Five years on from its birth, the GACD has become an established organisation with an international reach and a global voice. As the GACD grows and matures, we sought the views of past, present and future Chairs, to reflect on what has been achieved to date, assess the challenges of the future, and give their vision for GACD’s long term direction.

Reflecting on GACD’s achievements so far, Past Chair Professor Xuetao Cao noted that GACD has reached several major milestones: integrating global resources with a multi-agency funding mechanism, developing shared strategic goals, initiating joint scientific reviews, building international multi-disciplinary teams, and promoting implementation science on a truly global scale.

A key challenge for the future, says Professor Cao, will be getting NCDs higher on the agenda of low- and middle-income countries.

“NCDs are high on the agenda in the developed countries due to the increased economic and social burden of NCDs, but not high enough for low- and middle-income countries. The key is to have sound strategies and effective implementation plans to prevent NCDs.”

Speaking of his personal highlights as Chair, Professor Cao had warm praise for the GACD family:

“I am very impressed by the passion and dedication of the GACD family, from Board members and staff to local collaborators. Having the representation of the leading global funding organisations in GACD provided a unique platform to think big, and to truly address major challenges on a global scale.”

Looking to the future, GACD Chair Dr Alain Beaudet says the very health of the organisation, with new members continuing to join, presents a challenge in itself:

“GACD is growing rapidly – this is both exciting and challenging. Growth is good news, but there are a much larger number of funders around the table now, and we need to maintain strategic and effective decision making – something that’s more challenging in a larger organisation.”

For Dr Beaudet, focusing on key areas – and building on successes – will be the next big steps:

“What we did is decide to define a niche, which I think has been our most important lesson. Don’t try to boil the ocean:  find the area where we can make a difference. In our case, it was implementation science – in its early days at the time – but a field which has developed with us.”

Another question for GACD is how far to go in including research users in projects. We haven’t gone far enough yet, says Dr Beaudet:

“In some cases we’ve been doing research for researchers – and the fact is not all research users are created equal, as we know. So for the future it’s important to think about how we can focus on, and involve, research users even more than we have been doing.” 

As Chair Elect of GACD, Professor Glenda Gray is in the position of being able to take a long view. So where, in her estimation, should GACD be heading in the next ten years? If research is at the heart of GACD, partnerships are the organisation’s life blood. So a key question will be how to build on the worldwide networks that have developed so successfully in the Hypertension and Diabetes Programmes, says Professor Gray:

“Our partnerships are critical. The more partners we have, the more we open ourselves to innovative thinking. Partnerships are very important because all partners can benefit – partnerships can build more sustainable research, both for poorer countries which don’t have resources, and for developed countries which need implementable solutions. Developing and sustaining our partnership model is going to be a key task for the future.”

As GACD grows and develops – and the impact of its collaborative research is felt – its influence on the world stage is likely to grow too, says Professor Gray. So in the long-term, GACD is poised to have a greater impact not only in research, but in advocacy and policy change as well:

“Because of the unique design of the GACD we have a huge advantage, in that we are made up of major international government-funded research bodies, and other important national research organisations. So we are in a unique position in this alliance to influence policy change, both through the work of national research bodies, and through making our voice heard internationally.”

One thing is certain, as GACD continues to grow, the original vision of its founders – of joint international funding to tackle the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases – has been realised. GACD now represents the frontline of a joined-up global effort in the fight against NCDs.