Capacity Building Initiative on Operational Research in HIV/AIDS for NE Region

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Dear Forum,

Through this forum, I would like to share the Capacity building initiatives

taken by NACO on Operational Research in HIV/AIDS for Northeast Region.

NACO in conjunction with development partners (CDC-FHI) organized a five-day

capacity building workshop at North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of

Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, Meghalaya during September

21-25, 2010.

A total of 30 participants from various medical colleges, universities, research

institutions from Northeast region attended this workshop.

The outcome of the workshop was not only useful for young professional to

acquire adequate knowledge and skills in planning, implementing, managing and

data analysis but also concurrent development of the protocols on identified

priority research areas.

The workshop started with the identification of research gaps and priority

research questions.

In this process engaging the multi-skilled team of research implementers from an

early stage i.e. at the stage of prioritization of research areas and protocol

development not only builds their capacity but also increases their ownership

and in turn their accountability to conduct a high quality research.

To make the best use of the allotted time to accomplish the output goals, it was

important that the discussion stayed focused on identifying the key research

questions needed to address the gaps in knowledge and/or practice rather than

spending a lot of time discussing the gaps and other programmatic challenges.

Prioritization was done based on pre-determined criteria such as feasibility

(logistically, financially and timely), relevance, useful and generalizable,

adds significantly to the knowledge etc.

After prioritization of the research areas, the workshop moved to development of

research protocol including: rationale; objectives; sample size and sampling

design; data collection method and overview of data analyses; ethics and project

management issues and budget and timeline.

Presentations and discussions were scheduled in the forenoon sessions. In the

afternoon sessions, the participants worked in three separate groups, each under

the guidance of a mentor to actually develop the sequential steps of the

research protocol that were covered in the forenoon sessions.

During the last day of the workshop, each group presented the research plan with

other groups, mentors and decision makers.

Finally, three multi-centric research protocols were prepared by the end of the

workshop.

These protocols will be refined by the Research Institutions under the guidance

of mentors over a period of one month and submitted to NACO.

After clearance from NACO's Technical Resource Group on R & D, Lead and

Participatory Research Institutions will seek clearance from their Institutional

Review Board and thereafter with NACO-Ethics Committee.

These research studies will be commenced with funding from NACO/development

partners. It is expected that these three research studies will be completed

over a period of 1-2 years.

The knowledge emerged from these research will be used for the next planning

cycle of the programme in the region.

Dr. Ruchi Sogarwal

Programme Officer

Evaluation & Operational Research

National AIDS Control Organization

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

Government of India

E-mail: ruchi.dr@...

Tel: 011-43509991; Cell: 9560906661