Highlights

• Sustainable Development Goals mandate partnerships to advance global health within an integrated framework of development.
• A global thrust is needed to counter the global threat of cardiovascular diseases, which are extracting a high toll of premature mortality in low- and middle-income countries.
• Both the generation of new knowledge and effective application of available knowledge can be greatly aided by research collaboration between developed and developing countries, with mutually beneficial results.
• Low- and middle-income countries offer an opportunity for large-scale research studies and also young researchers who can advance innovations into global application.