Research Groups

The Global Development Institute is driven by the desire to advance social justice by conducting world-class, interdisciplinary research that achieves real impact.

Research at the Global Development Institute is focussed around our research groups. Within each group you’ll find our latest research projects, publications, activities as well as profiles of the academics involved. 

GDI has the specialist research of the Centre for Development Informatics and teaching of the Development Informatics Group.

Our research works with the Manchester Migration Lab, to bring our innovative research agenda into greater focus

Our research works to understand urban globalisation and its impacts

We push forward the frontiers of research about the interactions of growth and distribution 

Building more effective and inclusive institutions and political systems that are capable of delivering development.

The organisation of global production is undergoing significant evolution, under the influence of rising powers and more polycentric trade patterns and new technologies.

Our research looks at Systems of resource governance, Agricultural production systems and the growing use of ICT.

GDI research groups have some common themes. Understanding and addressing poverty and inequality remains a key focus; and we lead The University of Manchester’s Global Inequalities Research Beacon.

Many of our research projects address environmental and natural resource concerns; and many recognise (both directly and indirectly) the centrality of politics and power to development outcomes and engage with the imperatives of political change and policy and programme reform.

Finally our research groups are sensitive to the importance of context, recognising that while we live in a globalizing world, the impacts of globalization are varied, uneven and should not be taken for granted.

Beyond GDI, The University of Manchester itself provides a first class base for inter-disciplinary partnerships.  We work closely with the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, the Manchester Urban Institute, the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, and with many individual academics within the University from Engineering, Geography, Education, Economics, Politics, and Medicine amongst others.