Malnutrition is a major public health problem in sub-Saharan African countries including Uganda. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of undernourishment - inability to meet dietary energy requirements in the population estimated at 24.8 % [1]. About 36 % of children under five are stunted and 26 % are underweight [2].

While Uganda has registered an impressive economic growth rate averaging 7 % per annum in the last 10 years [3], progress towards reducing malnutrition has remained disturbingly slow. In Uganda, 33 % of children under 5 are stunted, 14 % are underweight while 5 % are wasted [4]. Anaemia affects half (50 %) of children 6–59 months old. About one in four women in the reproductive age (15–49 years) are anaemic [4], while 35.8 % of children under five are deficient of vitamin A [5].

Despite the high cost of malnutrition globally [6, 7], there has been limited investment in nutrition. Studies indicate that the current global investment in nutrition have not matched the size of the nutrition challenge [8, 9]. There is evidence that returns on investments in nutrition are high [10, 11] and benefit future generations [7]. Nutrition should be prioritised at national and subnational levels because of its importance in human, social and economic development [12]. Furthermore, investment in nutrition is a necessary prerequisite towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the second goal on ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture by the year 2030 [13].

In Uganda, nutrition research is mainly funded by the development partners (donors), international non - governmental organizations (NGO’s) and only to a limited extent by the government of Uganda. Most funding for nutrition research in African countries is obtained from international NGOs and donors. These external funders influence the agenda for nutrition research in accordance with their own interests [14, 15].

A World Bank report recommends countries to take lead in their development agendas and strengthen the evidence base for investing in nutrition [10]. Countries need to invest in locally appropriate, sustainable and effective, research based, interventions [14]. It is acknowledged that countries have a reservoir of experience and expertise that should be tapped to address nutrition challenges [12]. There are several interventions that can be effectively implemented locally including community based interventions [11]. For instance, communities can be sensitised to make use of traditional foods which are locally available and cheaper. Additionally, there is need to develop the research capacity of local researchers to meet the current and future research needs of the country [14]. This requires commitment and efforts from all stakeholders owing to the fact that nutrition programs are considered low priority for both governments and development partners [10]. The objective of this study was to identify priority areas for nutrition research so as to design effective interventions to address malnutrition in Uganda.

The study revealed that overall, stakeholders appraised community nutrition, behavioural nutrition and ecological nutrition as the three most highly ranked research options towards improving nutritional status while molecular nutrition research option was the lowest. The reasons community nutrition was ranked highest was possibly because it is considered to provide quick solutions to community based nutrition problems and for being relatively low cost and easy to conduct. This implies that in general, stakeholders perceive community nutrition interventions as the most appropriate research option towards addressing the problem of malnutrition in the country. A recent study by Lachat et al., 2014 also revealed that nutrition stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africa identified community nutrition interventions amongst the top priorities for nutrition research to improve nutrition status [18].

The findings of our study are in agreement with the policy recommendations by the government of Uganda in the Nutrition Action Plan 2011–2016, which outline operational research as a priority investment area. The target research areas identified in the policy document includes improved community and household level food processing for value addition, improved post-harvest handling and storage of food crops, community based school feeding pilot programs and investigation and demonstration of labour-saving technologies for women with young children. Furthermore, emphasis is put on the scale up of cost-effective community-based initiatives for prevention and control of malnutrition through community-based management of acute malnutrition [19].

Behavioural nutrition was the second most highly ranked research option. This may be because the technical experts to implement behavioural nutrition research are available in the country. A study by Holdsworth et al., 2014 reported that stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africa believe that the technical expertise to conduct behavioural nutrition is widely available in Africa [20]. This implies that given the required resources, implementation of behavioural nutrition research is feasible in the setting.

Ecological nutrition was the third most highly ranked research option. Ecological research option is considered to be in line with the countries’ development priorities in agriculture and environment and thus has good political will towards its implementation. This intervention can also be implemented using readily available scientific technologies for instance planting drought resistant crops. Under pessimistic scenarios, ecological nutrition was ranked low, in the fifth position. One possible reason for the low ranking may be because of its inability to provide quick solutions to urgent problems of the day. Another possible reason is that it requires experts across disciplines for it to be implemented effectively. In terms of addressing malnutrition, some researchers contend that it’s beneficial in linking agriculture and ecology with human nutrition and health [21], and that ecological nutrition has a significant role to play in directing agricultural interventions for improved nutrition [22].

Nutritional epidemiology was ranked low in the fourth position. This is not surprising because the national health system, which is supposed to capture epidemiological data on nutrition, faces several challenges. For instance there are weaknesses in the health management information systems and the infrastructure to capture data at both the district and sub-district levels is poor. This therefore limits proper use of nutritional epidemiology research. However, nutrition epidemiology ranking improved to second position under pessimistic conditions. This is attributed to the fact that it has less political interference compared to other research options like community nutrition research. Although it’s recognised for providing evidence for community nutrition interventions, some African nutrition stakeholders doubt its importance in addressing malnutrition in its own right [20]. However, nutritional epidemiology can provide nutritional surveillance information which is useful in nutrition planning and programming.

The study revealed that therapeutic/clinical nutrition enjoys good political will, public trust and support. However, it was surprisingly ranked low in the second last position. The poor ranking may be attributed to the fact that therapeutic/clinical nutrition studies are usually facility based and the infrastructure to conduct this type of research is inadequate hence limiting its contribution to address nutrition problems in the Ugandan setting.

Molecular nutrition research was the lowest ranked option under both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios in the settings. Molecular nutrition was perceived to have several shortcomings including limited laboratory equipment and technical personnel, the ethical dilemmas associated with its conduct, its high cost of implementation as well as the long period it takes to realise its impact. However, in the developed setting, it can make major contribution to the development of important nutrition interventions [23].

The findings of the study suggest that stakeholders consider three nutrition research options namely community nutrition intervention, behavioural nutrition and ecological nutrition as the most important towards improving nutrition status in Uganda. The government and development partners should therefore consider supporting the implementation of these research options towards addressing nutrition problems in Uganda.