This is an Official Development Assistance (ODA) funded UKaid project from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) is the primary mechanism for the UK Government to deploy technical expertise in outbreak response to ODA-eligible countries, stopping a public health threat from becoming a broader health emergency. It is a partnership between the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly Public Health England (PHE)) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and was established in 2016 in response to lessons learned from the West Africa Ebola outbreak. The UK-PHRST comprises public health experts who work to address the threat posed by infectious disease outbreaks in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) through an integrated triple remit of: (1) Outbreak Response: Rapidly investigate and respond to disease outbreaks at source in LMICs to stop a public health threat from becoming a broader health emergency by deploying specialist public health experts; (2) Research: Deliver rigorous, collaborative research with partners to improve the evidence base for best practice in epidemic preparedness and response; and (3) Capacity Strengthening: Strengthen leadership, systems and technical capacity for an improved response to disease outbreaks in ODA-eligible countries. This project was not put out to an open, competitive tender process because UKHSA is an executive agency of DHSC with a mandate to deliver on pandemic preparedness and therefore exempt from the tender process as it is within DHSC’s body of expertise.