On June 3–4, 2025, the Center for Global Development is pleased to announce its inaugural Annual Research Conference on Global Lead Exposure—a new forum to convene researchers, policymakers, and implementers, all working to stamp out global lead poisoning.
- Submission deadline: January 31, 2025
- Notifications deadline: February 28, 2025
- Location: Birdsall Conference Center, CGD, Washington D.C.
- Organizers: Rachel Bonnifield, Lee Crawfurd, Justin Sandefur, Rory Todd
- Submission requirements: Please submit either a full draft paper or abstract using this link.
- Fields of interest: All new, primary research on areas relevant to lead exposure in developing countries, including public health, environmental science, economics, etc. See below for further details on particular themes of emphasis this year.
- Travel and accommodation: CGD will cover economy class airfare and accommodation in Washington D.C. for one presenter per accepted paper.
Research for a lead-free future
The potential for lead-related research to have immediate policy impact in the developing world has never been greater. With the launch in September of the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future (PLF), and $150 million already secured to support lead mitigation efforts—with more potentially on the way—there are substantial resources available to address global lead poisoning. The scourge of lead exposure has enormous reach and impact; high blood lead levels are found in one in three children, and are estimated to account for a fifth of the learning gap between rich and poor countries.
Because this issue has been mostly neglected outside of industrialized nations for so long, the amount of evidence we have for understanding and mitigating lead poisoning globally doesn’t match the scale of the burden. We recently issued a Request for Proposals (RfP) for research in three areas which are core to effectively guiding efforts to mitigate lead poisoning, but which remain only partly explored:
- Documenting the sources of lead exposure
- Estimating causal impacts of lead on health, cognition, and other outcomes.
- Evaluating policy interventions to reduce lead exposure
Through this process, we hope to invest $1 million in new, high-impact research.
We’re excited to see the research that this process will yield, and, in parallel, to help grow and nurture the community of researchers that work on global lead exposure. Lead researchers work across a wide range of disciplines on various components of the issue, often without the opportunity to bring their work together. Hence the opportunity: a multi-disciplinary research conference which brings together researchers from across the academic community, as well as the policymakers and implementers who are poised to benefit from new research findings and insights.
A chance to present your work, or hear from the frontline
Do you do research on lead poisoning? If so, please consider this an enthusiastic invitation to submit your work for presentation and discussion at the conference, regardless of your disciplinary background. We hope the conference will feature new, primary research in public health, environmental science, economics, and other fields.
Our goal is that most of the featured research will fall into one of the three buckets we targeted in our RfP—sources, impacts, and interventions—although we’re theoretically interested in any research which can help us to understand and mitigate global lead poisoning. Given the concentration of lead poisoning in low- and middle-income countries, we have a preference for research in these settings, but for certain questions—especially on impacts of exposure—we are open to research from high-income countries as well. Researchers from the Global South are particularly encouraged to apply. Please apply to present using the submission form here.
We’ll have a selection process for presentations, but attendance at the conference will be free and open to all interested parties. If you’re a policymaker working on lead mitigation; someone in the health, education, or environment spaces with an interest in how lead poisoning may affect your work; or just an interested observer: we’d love you to join. Registrations to attend the conference will open three months before the conference date: please use the event page here to add the conference date to your calendar.
We look forward to seeing you there—and translating research into action for a lead-free future.
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