[1] Dedicated to saving lives through research and treatment, icddr,b addresses some of the most critical health concerns facing the world today, ranging from improving neonatal survival to HIV/AIDS.

icddr,b is one of the leading research institutes of the Global South, releasing, according to the Thomson Reuters Web of Science, 18 percent of the Bangladesh's publications.

icddr,b is supported by about 55 donor countries and organisations, including Sweden (SIDA), Canada, UK, Bangladesh, USA, UN specialised agencies, foundations, universities, research institutes and private sector organisations and companies that share the centre's concern for the health problems of developing countries and who value its proven experience in helping solve those problems.

The centre has, among its other accomplishments, played a major role in the discovery and implementation of oral rehydration therapy for the treatment of diarrhoea and cholera in the 1960s.

Courses provide practical training in hospital management of diarrhoeal diseases, epidemiology, biostatistics, family planning, demographic surveillance, and child survival strategies.

In 2016, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted[9] that icddr,b's innovations are directly contributing to sustainable development, helping reduce infant, child and maternal mortality significantly in Bangladesh and beyond.

Norbert Hirschhorn, Nathaniel Pierce, Dilip Mahalanabis and David Nalin for their contributions to the development and implementation of oral rehydration therapy.

Dr. Dilip Mahalanabis made his major contribution to oral rehydration therapy in 1971 while working in Calcutta and served as Director of Clinical Research at icddr,b in the 1990s.

1982: Matlab Maternal Child Health and Family Planning project shares its success in lowering national fertility rates with the Government of Bangladesh.

1989: Matlab record keeping system, specially adapted for Government use, extended to the national family planning programme.

1994: icddr,b epidemic response team goes to Goma, Zaire to assist cholera-stricken Rwandan refugees and helps reduce case fatality rate from as high as 49% to less than 1%.

2006: Dispersible zinc tablets launched through unique public-private partnership in national scale-up to treat diarrhoea in children under five years.

2011: "Continuum of Care" (a concept[12] involving a system that guides and tracks patients over time through a comprehensive array of health services) approach achieves 36% drop in perinatalmortality.

2015: icddr,b published a three-year strategic plan[14] 2015–2018, aiming to achieve broader objectives by developing a greater international focus, promoting the growth of South-South collaborations and increasing engagement with the private sector.

2016: Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged[9] that icddr,b interventions are directly contributing to sustainable development, which helped to significantly reduce infant, child and maternal mortality in Bangladesh and beyond.

It played a key role in community trials of oral rehydration solution (ORS) and early cholera vaccine studies.