Dr Sara Van Belle, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp gives a talk on the practice of realist inquiry in global health. Dr Sara Van Belle, Researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp provides an overview of the practice of realist inquiry origins and points of attraction or interest for global health systems and policy research. Specific challenges are discussed with some examples of applications in complex health programmes in LMIC and suggestions offered for further methodological development. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/