Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2010 2011 2012 2013

Details for Mechanism ID: 10309
Country/Region: Zambia
Year: 2012
Main Partner: Vanderbilt University
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: University
Funding Agency: HHS/NIH
Total Funding: $240,000

The Vanderbilt University-Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia AIDS International Training and Research Program (VU-CIDRZ AITRP; 5-D43-TW001035-13, led by Dr. Sten Vermund, has played an important role in the development and sustainability of research capacity in Zambia. The VU-CIDRZ AITRP in-country trainees will continue to sustain the current service, research, and training efforts even once the AITRP training funds are exhausted because considerable attention has been given to sustainability. Happily, the CDC-Zambia office concurs with this need and has indicated continued support for this AITRP supplement to support the ongoing in-country mentorship and training work outlined below.Specific Aims:1. Train a new generation of HIV/AIDS research leaders in Zambia, allied closely with institutions that are superbly placed to provide national and regional leadership in HIV/AIDS prevention and care research.2. Promote the initiation of new HIV-related research that complements and facilitates existing international research endeavors between U.S. and foreign investigators and builds long-term collaborative relationships among international scientists themselves. We seek to help our partner sites develop into national and regional research and training centers of excellence.3. Track and document the long-term impact of capacity building and training on (1) Trainee careers; (2) Research capacity of home institutions; and (3) Impact of conducted research at institutional, regional, national, and global levels.

Funding for Health Systems Strengthening (OHSS): $240,000

1. M.Med Capacity BuildingThrough the CDC support we will continue to focus on the enhancement of the research capacity at UNZA through the following activities: a) supporting the M.Med Research Coordinator; b) providing teaching tools and textbooks for the Research Methods Course; c) providing pilot HIV-related dissertation awards for M.Med students; d) sponsor post-graduate research conferences; e) support the UNZA School's Research Support Center (SRSC) through grants administration training and resources; f) collaborate with CDC, EGPAF, and MOH in assuring students have an operational familiarity with the national EHR system, SmartCare, and know what data it collects, how one can access this data, and how one might use the system to monitor and evaluate both clinical and public health endpoints1) Provide salary support for several key personnel: Dr. Selestine Nzala,MD, MPH, Assistant Dean Postgraduate at UNZA, Program Manager of UNZA-VU capacity building project.; Dr. Ben Andrews, Training Coordinator, mentors the M.Med students; and Dr. Yusuf Ahmed, M.Med Research Coordinator, lead instructor for the M.Med Research Methods Course.2) Sponsor one-time HIV related research support for M.Med students and faculty.3) Sponsor UNZA postgraduate HIV-related research conference4) Sponsor a strategic planning meeting for the UNZA School's Research Support Center (SRSC) focused on grant administration.5) Develop e-learning tools built upon our in-county advanced short courses in scientific writing.6) Sponsor a special issue of Current HIV Research (CHIVR) on HIV in Zambia.7) Provide sponsorship for 1-2 M.Med students for HIV-related scientific conference if they are selected for poster or oral presentation.8) Sponsor M.Med faculty to attend the new VU Institute in Research Development and Ethics, March 20122. Short-term In-country Training:Since much of our Fogarty training has focused on long-term degree training at VU, UAB and LSHTM, we have lacked for adequate resources for an equally compelling component, namely the intensive workshops led by visiting scholars and our local collaborators from CDC-Zambia. Our viewpoint was, and still is, that research excellence will not be found when technical expertise and practice-based experience are lacking. Key barriers to broadening the scope of HIV/AIDS-related research in the field are limited knowledge, technical expertise, and practice-based experience. We intend to conduct two short courses in manuscript writing and clinical quality improvement research in 2012 to support HIV/AIDS-related research efforts in-country. We will utilize local expertise and other fiscal support as we have done in the past. The impact of the training program on the trainees will be assessed with the help of a pre- and post-test evaluation as well as follow-up assessment one year post-training.3. Program EvaluationFor this funding cycle, the MMed Education Coordinator is charged with conducting the evaluation of the curriculum through support from MEPI and Vanderbilt (VU) will evaluate the scientific accomplishments made by the MMed faculty and students. For the scientific accomplishments, VU will review the trend in publications from MMed projects from 2006 until present. This will include manuscripts published in PubMed indexed journals as well as those published in local and regional journals like the Medical Journal of Zambia.

Subpartners Total: $0
Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia: NA
University of Alabama at Birmingham: NA
University of Zambia: NA