Table 1.

Potential Health Inequalities Research Capacity Challenges to Consider in Different Contexts.

Level	Potential health inequality research capacity challenges to address
Global	Limited stewardship, governance, and lack of human and financial and technical resources19,21; limited demand for, and prioritization of, locally relevant health equity-oriented COVID-19 research19,21; conflicting socio-political value judgments, ideology, and interests around health inequalities, and fair and inequitable responses between countries and institutions.19,23,38,39
National, regional, or city	Limited stewardship, governance, and limited provision of health inequalities related human and financial and technical resources19,21,37; limited tradition of public health and health inequalities research 37 ; conflicting socio-political value judgments, ideology and interests around health inequalities, and fair and inequitable responses between institutions and stakeholders19,37; limited demand for, and prioritization of locally relevant health equity-oriented COVID-19 research19,21,28; limited demand for available, transparent and reliable, disaggregated and integrated health and socio-demographic data12,13,37; limited academic freedom or creative autonomy to reflect, propose and pursue critical research on global-societal-health issues, such as health inequalities, particularly during pandemics. 19
Institutional	Limited stewardship, limited provision of human, financial and technical resources, facilities, and infrastructure19,21,40; conflicting social-political value judgments, ideology and interests19,38,39; limited demand for, and prioritization of, locally relevant health equity-oriented COVID-19 research19,21; limited academic freedom or creative autonomy to reflect, propose, and pursue critical research on global-societal-health issues such as health inequalities, particularly during pandemics. 19
Research infrastructure: Information systems	Limited stewardship, governance, and limited provision of human, financial, and information resources19,21,40; limitations in the completeness and quality of geographical information and surveillance resources, with a health equity lens27,28,37; limitations in the available, reliable, disaggregated and integrated health and socio-demographic data, to support the measuring and monitoring of health inequalities.2,19,27,28,32,37,40
Research infrastructure: Human resources	Limited access to available training in integrating transdisciplinary perspectives to be able to understand, analyze, and monitor health inequalities19,21,37,40; “brain-drain”19,21; lack of a local critical mass of transdisciplinary professionals, trained to understand, analyze, monitor, and evaluate health inequalities, and other complex global-societal issues such as pandemics19,21,37; conflicting socio-political value judgments, ideology, and interests among research groups and individual researchers.19,23,37–39
Research networks	Limited pooling and mobilizing of (local and international) resources and cognitive social capital to co-develop effective solutions to address health inequalities during complex global–societal times19,21,23,37; conflicting socio-political value judgments, ideology and interests among research groups and individual researchers.19,23,37–39
Research output	Limited volume of health equity-oriented COVID-19 analyses, and transparent reporting of locally relevant findings, published in peer-review academic international journals.12,13,19,21,25,37
Research usage	Challenges in communicating and disseminating these research findings to different audiences in an accurate, appropriate, and timely manner.5,31