Improving funding transparency to advance leprosy research

Significant progress has been made toward increasing alignment within the leprosy research community in the last five years. The Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy's (GPZL) Zero Leprosy Research Agenda, published in 2018, represents the combined effort of more than 140 participants from more than 20 countries. The Agenda laid out key research areas that will bring us closer to reaching zero leprosy. GPZL conducted a prioritization of the Zero Leprosy Research Agenda in 2020. LRI also prioritized their joint research agenda in 2019/2020, reaching nearly identical conclusions. 1 These prioritization exercises, along with an additional landscaping project that GPZL undertook in 2021, helped to illuminate the gaps between currently funded leprosy research and the stated priorities of the community. The Leprosy Research Initiative (LRI) has continued to grow since its formation, increasing the amount of joint research funding available to support leprosy research.