The Minister of State for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson MP, announced during his visit to Cambridge's Sainsbury Laboratory on 21st July 2017 that two major research collaborations led by the University of Cambridge have been awarded almost £15 million in funding to address global food security in India and public health challenges in Bangladesh.

Researchers are invited to attend a meeting about responses to the Research Hub Call convened by the Research Strategy Office. The objective of this meeting, which will be chaired by the member of the GCF advisory committee Bhaskar Vira, is to discuss specific ideas for the GCRF Research Hubs: key research questions, scope of the hubs, current and prospective partners to involve, outputs and impacts.

The Global Challenge Forum is organising a series of meetings from June onwards to establish thematic working groups, some of which are likely to focus on coordinating funding proposals.