Initiating a network to support engagement between health researchers and schools: recommendations from an international meeting of schools engagement practitioners held in Kilifi, Kenya.

Engagement between health researchers and local schools, or School Engagement, has become incorporated into the engagement strategies of many research institutions worldwide. Innovative initiatives have emerged within Wellcome Trust-funded African and Asian Programmes (APPs) and elsewhere, and continued funding from the Wellcome Trust and other funders is likely to catalyse further innovation. Engagement between and schools is well-described in the scientific literature (1-4), however, engagement between and schools is much newer, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and rarely documented.