This 5-year proposal, submitted in response to FIC/NIH International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award, will establish a comprehensive, collaborative, interdisciplinary research ethics training program in Turkey with outreach to C. Asia region. Such a formal educational framework is currently lacking. The program will offer graduate coursework, didactics, research ethics committee and research administration practice and research methods guidance at the Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard School of Public Health to help trainees launch mentored research ethics projects in the LMIC leading to a Master's Degree in Research Ethics in the LMIC (n=15 awards during the grant cycle). The program will have two main tracks for LMIC research: 1- Physician-scientists will concentrate on research ethics questions at the interface of medicine and public health, examining ways to improve informed consent process, enhance human subject protections, and address ethical challenges that frequently arise in designing or conducting research; 2-Other allied health professionals, educators, ethicists, lawyers, with an interest in guidelines, ethical review, regulatory compliance and research administration will concentrate in improvement in implementation of human subjects' regulations and protection systems. The goal of this two-fold strategy is to elevate research ethics as an integral core of clinical and public health research, to develop an currently missing infrastructure for development of research h administration, and to promote this as a regional and global resource. Our successful record of running research training programs over a decade has helped us identify nodal points for intervention and to develop innovative ways to overcome institutional barriers and to address practical challenges in developing, reviewing, conducting, and overseeing health research in Turkey. Modeled after Rockefeller University, the Ko University School of Medicine in Istanbul will serve as the hub in Turkey for the regional LMICs of our research ethics training activities. An International Summer Institute in Research Ethics organized annually in Istanbul will offer scholarships to applicants (n=125 during the award cycle) who will be invited to engage in 2-week long dynamic and interactive research methods and ethics education with US and LMIC faculty and participation of former trainees. The Institute will provide a forum for discussion of a range of research ethics related questions and serve as a nexus for recruitment of talented trainees. The program is likely to bring exceptional value-added to the region in research ethics education, improvement of global health partnerships, and effective implementation of quality of care and evidence-based health practices in the region.
This international research ethics education and curriculum development award brings together a decade long collaborative expertise in research training in Turkey (LMIC) in building an interdisciplinary framework for post- doctoral training of young leadership in the field of research ethics, research administration and public health through a well formed partnership with institutions in the United States and LMIC. The program stands to offer sustainable research ethics capacity development in institutions that is currently lacking in the underestimated Central Asia World Bank region, in which Turkey also belongs. The goal is to provide a solid foundation for development and implementation of well funded research ethics practicum projects leading to a Master's degree in meeting the challenges faced for leadership in this important field the developing world. The program has strong partnerships with pre-existing FIC/NIH, NIMH, NICHD and MCH Bureau funded training networks
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