The centre operated within the university's Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, and was led by a steering group chaired by a principal investigator.

Research conducted within UCGHR was interdisciplinary in nature, with staff and students working together from backgrounds in demography, public health sciences, epidemiology, medicine, economics, statistics and sociology.

Research activities were clustered around five areas of expertise: Many of UCGHR's research projects were linked to INDEPTH (the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health), a network of field sites in countries across Africa, Asia and South America.

This network provides a platform to share and exchange vital health data between some of the world's poorest countries and enables comparative studies of global research questions related to disease development, urbanisation and migration as well as opportunities to develop methods and evaluate interventions.

The Swedish Research School for Global Health was the result of a partnership between the centre and the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.