Breaking the Silos: How Institutional Homophily Governs Interdisciplinary Team Assembly in Health Research

How do research silos form, and how can we break them? Using an agent-based model extending team assembly theory, we simulate how tuning institutional homophily bridges basic biomedical scientists and clinical epidemiologists to foster translational health research.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Oct 03, 2026

Behind the Paper

From Citation to Courtroom: When Research Evidence Shapes Legal Reasoning

A CRISPR funding study cited in a U.S. legal brief reveals how scientific evidence informs judicial reasoning. Beyond academia, research quietly shapes legal arguments about public funding, innovation, and societal impact.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Apr 17, 2026

Behind the Paper

Beyond the Impact Factor: Mexico’s Mission-Oriented Leap Toward Health Sovereignty

Mexico’s IMSS-Bienestar is implementing a mission-oriented research strategy to align knowledge production with public health needs. By combining participatory design and open science tools, it seeks to strengthen health system performance and advance health sovereignty.do

David Fajardo Ortiz

Apr 03, 2026

Behind the Paper

How can we measure the evolution of health research? A data-driven approach across funding systems

We developed a scalable method to classify health research across 26,000+ projects and their publications, combining expert knowledge and machine learning. This allows us to track how funding priorities translate into research outputs across systems and over time.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Mar 28, 2026

Behind the Paper

Navigating the Future of Health Research: Evidence for the FP10 Debate

Public funding is already transforming health research. This study shows how collaboration and societal relevance are increasing—while basic science remains central—providing critical insights for FP10 decision-making.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Mar 24, 2026

News and Opinion

Beyond the Western Lens: The Realignment of Aging Science

Aging research is no longer centered in a single region or perspective. As scientific capacity expands across the Global South, long-standing assumptions about what counts as valid evidence are being challenged—prompting a critical rethinking of universality, relevance, and equity in aging science.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Mar 21, 2026

Life in Research

Investigating the heart of science policy

To what extent and in what way do the needs for scientific knowledge in health expressed by different stakeholders translate into research funding priorities and research portfolios useful for solving problems that affect these actors?

David Fajardo Ortiz

Mar 02, 2024

News and Opinion

How can I demonstrate the social impact of my research?

With DORA, a large number of universities and funding agencies have committed to value of the impact on society of your research. With your list of publications, altmetric data, a search engine and your detective skills, you can identify who and how they are using the knowledge you have generated.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Feb 22, 2024

News and Opinion

An outsider studying the processes of knowledge production and biomedical and biotechnological innovation in the United States and the European Union. Part 1: The fear of Ebola fever.

In this blog I am going to post a series of reflections on how a vision from the global south can be useful to improve and democratize biomedical innovation processes in the United States and Europe. In part 1, I present a study on the structure of Ebola research.

David Fajardo Ortiz

Sep 21, 2023

Funding a technological revolution: who pays for what CRISPR research?

Behind the Paper

Funding a technological revolution: who pays for what CRISPR research?

David Fajardo Ortiz

Feb 07, 2023

How to visualize a paradigmatic change in HIV-AIDS research?

Behind the Paper

How to visualize a paradigmatic change in HIV-AIDS research?

David Fajardo Ortiz

Nov 30, 2019

David Fajardo Ortiz (He/Him)