Since 1999, researchers from The University of Chicago and partner institutions in US and Bangladesh including ICDDR, B - Center for Health and Population and BSM Medical University, have been conducting multidisciplinary collaborative environmental and occupational health research in the country. Capitalizing on the progress made through our pilot GEOHealth planning grant as well as our extensive in-country experience, we are now well-poised to respond to the current RFAs (TW-14-001/2) on the next phase GEOHealth research and training program. As a companion to the U01 research application led by our Bangladesh partners, the proposed U2R training grant will be jointly led by University of Chicago (the contact lead institution), BSM Medical University, ICDDR, B as well as selected US and local partner academic institutions to augment complementary training expertise relevant to this application. The U2R training program aims to train year-long post-doctoral and 3-month long pre-doctoral trainees every year through a combination of targeted course works on substantive and methodological topics as well as in-depth hands-on laboratory/research rotations exposing them on modern laboratory, analytic and clinical (for trainees with clinical background) underpinnings involved in environmental health research. In addition to this US-based specialized training curriculum, structured shorter-term in-country mini-courses (2 weeks) and workshops (1-2 days) will be offered every year on various components of environmental health research including study design and sampling, exposure assessment methods, outcome assessment and data analysis for evaluating health effects of air pollution, climate change and garment health work. All trainees will be carefully chosen from Bangladesh. Long-term post-docs and inter-mediate-term pre-docs for US-based training will be mainly selected from partner institutions and the short-term trainees for in-country short-course/workshops will be open to all Bangladeshis with interests and commitment in environmental and occupational health research. A rigorous evaluation (both process and outcome) system will be in place for facilitating the Administrative Oversight Committee to monitor and ensure program success. In addition to a large team of faculty mentors with expertise on research- focused training activities representatives from the Government, private sector, community and international agencies in Bangladesh will be involved to maximize the impact of the training program on broader policy and welfare related to environmental and occupational health agenda for Bangladesh and beyond.
In this U2R training grant The University of Chicago will team up with their long-standing and selected new partners to develop a structured training curriculum on environmental and occupational health research for students and researchers in Bangladesh. The goal is to enhance capacity for the in-country institutions and researchers for them to tackle some of the most pressing environmental and occupational health issues affecting Bangladesh, including air pollution, climate change and garment industry health. Specifically, we will train year-long post-doctoral and 3-month long pre-doctoral trainees through a combination of targeted course works and hands-on laboratory/research rotations taking place at Chicago and shorter-term in-country mini-courses (2 weeks) and workshops (1-2 days) in Bangladesh.
