There is increasing consensus on the importance of strengthening global health research to meet health and development goals. Three key global health research aims are to ensure that research (i) addresses priority health needs, (ii) contributes to policy development, and (iii) adds value to investments in developing countries through South-South collaboration and capacity-strengthening in the South. The ALPHA network (Analysing Longitudinal Population-based HIV/AIDS data on Africa) is an illustrative example of how these global health research aims can be translated into action. The network facilitates additional collaborative HIV epidemiological research among six independent research projects in Africa studying population-based cohorts. Under the first of the earlier mentioned aims, the network addresses key epidemiology research issues in HIV/AIDS which are crucial to making progress and monitoring progress in the response against HIV/AIDS. Under the second aim, the network's scientific programme of research has contributed to strengthening the evidence base on HIV epidemiology in Africa and has informed policy development in areas such as targeted HIV prevention, social support, monitoring epidemic response and epidemic forecasting. Under the third aim, investment in the network has added value to the research investment in the individual projects through capacity development among African researchers as well as through the collaborative research outputs of the individual projects. Lessons from the network are relevant to collaborations facing similar challenges in other areas of global health research. These include the importance of establishing transparent and efficient governance for research collaborations, developing advance consensus on data sharing, ensuring effective communication for networking and demonstrating the added value of research investment in South-South collaborations.