Saturday, December 21, 2024
12/21/2024
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The College of Medicine University of Lagos (CMUL), the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria LLC (APIN), the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Northwestern University (NU), propose the continuation of research capacity building of the Medical Education Partnership initiative Nigeria (MEPIN) with the Building Research And Innovation in Nigeria's Science (BRAINS) proposal. BRAINS will develop sustainable curriculum for junior faculty at CMUL, build a sustainable e-learning curriculum and support a robust mentored research program. The BRAINS research themes build on the progress and track record of this decade long research and training collaboration with over 74 publications in the past 5 years. The research themes include: 1) HIV Outcomes Research which will build on the infrastructure, training and electronic database available for thousands of patients on ART. The research will have significant impact on program implementation and inform Nigeria's national policy on HIV prevention, treatment and care; 2) Community Medicine is an important public health oriented approach to strengthening healthcare in Nigeria. Significant progress in the development of rotations that incorporate research was initiated through the MEPIN grant, this will be further refined and supported with the BRAINS program; 3) Genomics of Infectious Disease will build upon the infrastructure for genetic sequencing supported by CMUL and Chevron. MEPIN has also supported training in molecular biology and a course on HIV genomics, which will train junior faculty in 2015. The CMUL experience with the recent Ebola outbreak and accentuated the need for sustaining a significant effort in this arena; 4) Innovation in Biomedical Engineering will promote innovations in technologies for relevant Nigerian health problems. The BRAINS program will build upon their research strengths and MEPIN progress as well as leverage support from multiple academic, research, US and Nigerian governments and private partners. This proposal will further develop the Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation program initiated with MEPIN support with the addition of adapted coursework on integrated epidemiology and biostatistics and programs on clinical effectiveness currently provided at HSPH. The curriculum will include courses that were initiated by our US partners and have now been "stepped down" to CMUL including: responsible conduct of research, human ethics training, research methodology, data analysis, manuscript writing, case-based method of teaching, and public health research in infectious diseases. This will be further developed into a sustainable e-learning format again building on infrastructure provided by MEPIN. We propose to formalize the mentored research program for junior faculty for five junior faculty members every 2 years. Program evaluation will include metrics such as the timely completion of research, publication of research in peer-reviewed literature and submission of proposals for external funding for continued research. Building this capacity of junior faculty in research and innovation will be critical to the country's advancement of science and improvement in human heath.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).