Setting evidence based national public health research priorities in Nigeria using the CHNRI method

Nigeria faces persistent public health challenges, exacerbated by systemic constraints, fragmented research investments, and limited cross-sectoral coordination. Despite successive national health strategies, Nigeria lacks a comprehensive, multisectoral, evidence-based national public health research priority list. This study applied the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methodology to systematically identify and rank Nigeria’s national public health research priorities. A national, online, mixed-methods CHNRI priority-setting exercise was conducted between February and April of 2025. Using purposive sampling, 150 multisectoral experts with Nigeria-focused public health experience were invited. Experts generated research ideas, which were refined by an Expert Management Group into 40 hypotheses. Participants independently scored each hypothesis against five CHNRI criteria—answerability, effectiveness, paradigm shift potential, implementation feasibility, and equity impact—using a standardized three-point scale (0, 0.5, and 1). Research Priority Scores (RPS) and Average Expert Agreement (AEA) were calculated. Of the invited experts, 135 (90%) participated, and 108 (72%) completed idea submission and scoring. From the 255 submitted ideas, 40 hypotheses were finalized. The RPS values ranged from 0.728 to 0.848, with AEA between 51.9% and 73.1%. The top-ranked priorities focused on water, sanitation and hygiene, health education, child malnutrition, hypertension screening, and immunization effectiveness. Expert scoring patterns demonstrated strong agreement for answerability, effectiveness, and equity-related criteria across several hypotheses, whereas intermediate scoring patterns highlighted uncertainties in implementation feasibility and paradigm-shift potential for selected research areas. This multi-sectoral CHNRI exercise generated Nigeria’s first comprehensive, evidence-informed, national public health research priority list. The findings provide a transparent framework to guide policy, funding, and research investments, strengthen national ownership, and improve the alignment between research and Nigeria’s most pressing and inequitable public health challenges.