TDR has a history of supporting researchers and public health practitioners, in collaboration with the WHO regional offices, through small grants (ranging from US$ 10000 to US$ 20000). Since 2014 the programme’s focus has been on implementation research and each region has taken more responsibility for jointly identifying with TDR the research priorities to be funded.

The small grants programme embodies the overall TDR Strategy by incorporating research capacity strengthening, research for implementation and global engagement. The programme has included all WHO regions since 2016.

Other partners are increasingly collaborating with TDR
to implement this programme, and in 2019 a total of US$
2 million was leveraged from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), Alliance for Health Policies and Systems Research (AHPSR), the SORT IT AMR programme (funded by the UK Department of Health & Social Care) and the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP).