The Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom (MRC-UK) launched ‘Confidence in Global Mental Health Research: Institutional “pump-priming” awards to develop new opportunities in Global Mental Health Research’ in July 2017 . Through these awards, the MRC-UK offered a one year grant opportunity to lay the grounds for future large scale, multi-disciplinary, cross-country global mental health research. The aim being to study mental health issues which are of primary relevance in low and middle income countries (LMICs). The initial focus of the MRC grant was the aetiology of mental illness and the impact of challenges to early brain development on mental health.