The University of Alabama at Birmingham (DAB) ITREOH, a collaborative research training effort with the Aga Khan University (AKU) of Karachi, Pakistan, seeks to expand its training and research collaboration in South Asia. South Asian countries, including Pakistan, are transitioning from an agrarian to an industrialized economy with a myriad of new environmental and occupational health (EOH) concerns. There are no university-based training programs in this region specifically designed to train the necessary professionals to take on these challenges. The UAB-AKU partnership has resulted in the establishment of a core group of researchers/trainers at AKU who have developed skills in environmental epidemiology, who provide input at the nation level, and have implemented an EOH certificate program at AKU. Our new proposal includes two other principal partner institutions that were identified during our regional training efforts, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in India and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Sri Lanka. The proposed training program will focus on prevention and intervention research as applied to the mitigation of environmental and occupational hazards. A major highlight of the collaboration will be the development of an EOH graduate degree program at AKU.
The specific aims of this research training program are: (1) Training - To establish and sustain EOH training infrastructure at partner institutions;(2) Research - To further enhance research skills and expand research capacity;(3) Resources - To develop additional resources to support ongoing and future training and research;and (4) Trainee Tracking - To track and document the long-term impact of research training. Training components will include short-term regional training that will consist of principle- and problem-based short courses;intermediate training at UAB or selected sites to enhance research skills, provide mentorship and funds for pilot research. A masters and doctoral degree will be offered as an option to exceptional candidates. Our goal is to develop a core group of trained, independent researchers who are recognized as having expertise in EOH issues and provide input into EOH policies at the national level. Further developing AKU's independence to provide regional leadership and expanding EOH research and training in South Asia that has the potential to translate into practice should be an excellent long-term investment of Fogarty resources.
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