Infectious diseases of poverty continue to impose a disproportionate burden on low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Strengthening research capacity in these settings is critical for generating locally relevant evidence and improving health outcomes. In response to this need, Infectious Diseases of Poverty is pleased to announce a special issue entitled “Sustaining Research Capacity: Competency Building and Implementation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.”

This special issue aims to provide a platform for rigorous analysis of research capacity strengthening initiatives, moving beyond immediate outputs to examine long-term outcomes and sustainability. We invite submissions that explore the effectiveness of training programs, including postgraduate schemes, fellowships, and institutional partnerships, with a focus on implementation research and clinical research leadership in low and middle-income countries. We encourage manuscript submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Career Trajectories and Retention: Evidence of how training programs influence career progression, retention within LMICs, and the transition into leadership roles.

• Scientific Outputs and Bibliometrics: Retrospective and prospective evaluations of research productivity, including publication volume, authorship positions, journal quality, and citation networks.

• Collaboration and Networking: Assessments of how training influences national, South-South, and North-South collaboration patterns.

• Institutional Capacity and Curriculum Development: Evaluations of how training programmes strengthen institutional research ecosystems, including curriculum integration (e.g., the inclusion of implementation research modules), faculty development, and the establishment of sustainable research agendas.

• Challenges and Barriers: Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the obstacles researchers face post-training, such as limited funding opportunities, publication inequities, and the scarcity of high-level positions.

We welcome a variety of article types, including original research articles, scoping reviews and policy briefings. Manuscripts should offer methodological rigor and provide actionable insights for funders, policymakers and academic institutions to optimize future investments in research capacity strengthening. This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 10, Reduced Inequalities.

All submissions in this collection undergo the journal’s standard peer review process. Similarly, all manuscripts authored by a Guest Editor(s) will be handled by the Editor-in-Chief. As an open access publication, this journal levies an article processing fee (details here). We recognize that many key stakeholders may not have access to such resources and are committed to supporting participation in this issue wherever resources are a barrier. For more information about what support may be available, please visit OA funding and support, or email OAfundingpolicy@springernature.com or the Editor-in-Chief.

A thematic series in Infectious Diseases of Poverty.

We are experiencing the process of global large-scale urbanization and nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050 according to the World Urbanization Prospects issued by the United Nations. Urbanization has the pros and cons like a double-edged sword. Improved health services, better infrastructure and more employment opportunities benefit people a lot, but the overcrowding, environmental pollution, dietary changes and traffic jam may cause health problems.

Non-communicable diseases have attracted researcher’ concern due to its increasing importance during the process of urbanization (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, hypertension, obesity), but the communicable diseases seem to be neglected. The ongoing global pandemic caused by COVID-19 warns us again about the potential threats from infectious diseases, the wide connectivity, heightened mobilities and potential zoonotic risks from rapid urbanization became immediately apparent for human health. For low-income countries, infectious diseases still have a profound impact since the leading morbidity and mortality are still infectious diseases and many of those low-income countries will have a major growth among urban population in the future. Urbanization can result in an amount of changes such as the environment, climate, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, social and spatial aspect, human behavior and population movement and land-use, which will re-shape the (re)emergence and trajectory of infectious diseases, both human diseases and zoonotic diseases contributing to the occasionally cross species spillovers from wildlife populations to humans.

As a complex dynamic process, urbanization is associated with human, domestic poultry, wild birds, environment and even expanded interfaces of contacts among them, which may all result in increased vulnerability to infectious disease. Besides, due to different urbanization process, social class and educational level, the influence of urbanization on infectious diseases will be very heterogeneous and the local diseases and health challenges can greatly differ. Hence, a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach including epidemiology, geography, sociology, ecology, zoology, veterinary science, statistics and others is needed to better illuminate the relationship between urbanization and infectious diseases.

In order to better understand the impact of urbanization on infectious diseases and provide rational policy suggestions on improving human health, the journal of Infectious Diseases of Poverty is launching a new Thematic Series entitled Urbanization and infectious diseases. This series will focus on better evidence of impacts of the urbanization process on various infectious diseases, included but not limited to vector-borne infectious diseases, water-borne diseases, food-borne diseases, natural focus disease or endemic disease, respiratory diseases, zoonotic diseases and emerging infectious diseases.