Global research priority-setting
A 12-month international eDelphi exercise producing the network's first Global Research Agenda.
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A new global scientific network · founding phase underway
Accelerating global learning at the intersection of implementation science and data science
NEXUS connects researchers, practitioners and policymakers across all WHO regions to develop shared methods, datasets, ontologies, evidence syntheses and AI-enabled tools that improve implementation in real-world health systems.
Why NEXUS
From evidence to practice, faster and fairer
The world does not lack effective health interventions. It lacks the shared infrastructure to get them into practice everywhere, not just where resources concentrate.
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Challenge
The challenge
Evidence-based interventions take an estimated 17 years to reach routine care, and many never do, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The gap between what we know and what health systems deliver costs lives and entrenches inequity.
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Gap
Why existing approaches are insufficient
Implementation research is too often conducted study by study, in silos: measures, terminologies and datasets differ across projects and contexts, so findings are hard to compare, synthesize, or reuse. Each new effort starts nearly from scratch.
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Insight
Why the two sciences need each other
Implementation science brings the theories and methods for changing practice; data science brings the scale: shared data standards, ontologies, and AI-enabled analysis. Alone, each falls short: tools without implementation grounding don't stick, and implementation knowledge without shared data structures doesn't travel.
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Response
What NEXUS is doing
NEXUS is building the common ground: a globally set research agenda, an implementation science ontology, shared data standards, AI-enabled methods, and cross-context evidence synthesis, developed by working groups spanning all WHO regions. See our priority initiatives →
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You
How you can get involved
Researchers, policymakers, health services, data scientists, implementation practitioners, and students are all welcome, and membership is free during the founding year. Register your interest →
12
Month international priority-setting exercise
4
Languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
6+
WHO regions represented on the expert panel
30%
Minimum LMIC representation, by design
Designed differently
Equity in the architecture, not as an afterthought
The network's founding commitments are structural, written into its governance and methods from day one.
LMIC leadership
Minimum representation thresholds for researchers from low- and middle-income countries across the Executive Committee, country leadership, and working group co-chairs, with early-career LMIC researchers in leading roles.
Community voice at the table
Community and lived-experience representatives sit on the Executive Committee itself, not in an advisory silo, with honoraria and co-authorship rights.
Early-career pathways
Every working group pairs an early-career co-chair with a senior investigator, supported by structured mentorship and an annual methods school attached to the General Assembly.
Priority initiatives
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Five programs of joint work
The network's activities are organised around five priority initiatives, each delivered through international working groups.
Implementation science ontology
A shared, machine-readable vocabulary for implementation concepts, determinants, strategies and outcomes.
Learn more →Shared data standards
Common standards and structures so implementation data can be compared and reused across studies and settings.
Learn more →AI-enabled implementation methods
Responsible applications of machine learning and language models to implementation research and practice.
Learn more →Cross-context learning & evidence synthesis
Living syntheses and cross-context comparisons that let implementation lessons travel between health systems.
Learn more →Delivered by working groups
International working groups form around each initiative, co-chaired by early-career and senior investigators across WHO regions.
All initiatives →Be part of the network from the start
Membership is free during the founding year, and Delphi panellists may become the founding membership. Register your interest in joining the expert panel, a working group, or the wider network.
Become a Founding Member