Title
Training opportunities for noncommunicable diseases research in Latin America: A scoping review
Other title
Oportunidades de formação em pesquisa em doenças não transmissíveis na América Latina: revisão da literatura do tipo scoping review Oportunidades para la formación de investigadores sobre enfermedades no transmisibles en América Latina: Una revisión exploratoria
Date Issued
01 January 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
review
Publisher(s)
Pan American Health Organization
Abstract
Objective. To identify gaps in postgraduate training and options for building capacity in noncommunicable disease (NCDs) research in Latin America. Methods. This was a scoping review of postgraduate opportunities in NCDs at top universities in Latin America and of training grants awarded by international funding bodies. Three global university rankings were considered - the QS Ranking, the Shanghai Ranking, and the Times Ranking. Latin American universities appearing in at least two of these were selected. University websites were searched for current graduate programs in biostatistics, epidemiology, global health, health economics, and public health. Information was extracted, summarized, and evaluated to identify any programs focused on NCDs. In addition, seven international funding bodies' websites were searched for training grants. Results. In all, 33 universities offering 72 postgraduate programs met the inclusion criteria. One of these programs was exclusively devoted to NCD, and 12 offered NCDs as a dissertation research topic. Only two training grants were awarded to a Latin American institution for NCD capacity building. There are few NCD research training programs in Latin America and only one program exclusively focused on NCDs. Conclusion. There seem to be few NCD-specific research training programs in Latin America. Leveraging existing programs and expanding those with a focus on NCDs could help enhance NCD research capacity in the region. These initiatives should be supported by international funding agencies through more funding opportunities.
Volume
43
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias médicas, Ciencias de la salud
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85112234158
Source
Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica/Pan American Journal of Public Health
ISSN of the container
10204989
Sponsor(s)
the grants awarded by Grand Challenges Canada, IDRC, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and the Wellcome Trust. offered by key global funding agencies were reviewed. These key agencies were: Grand Challenges Canada (10), International Development Research Centre from Canada (IDRC; 11), the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH; 12), Swiss National Science Foundation (13), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (14), the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (15), and the Wellcome Trust (16). These organizations were chosen because of their history of successful interactions with research groups in Latin America. We found a total of 72 postgraduate training programs on biostatistics, epidemiology, global health, health economics, or public health offered by 33 universities in Latin America. The sole program devoted to NCDs was a master’s degree on clinical epidemiology offered in Venezuela. We also found 12 programs with NCDs as the research area—seven PhDs and five master’s—most of which were offered by universities in Brazil. We found only two training grants dedicated to NCDs, of which only one was a training planning grant; both were funded by the Fogarty International Center at the NIH. The limited opportunities for postgraduate training in NCD research signal the need to reshape, enhance, and update existing programs and develop new ones to address the shortage. Research training grants. Relevant grant opportunities Wellcome Trust 214185/Z/18/Z
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus