The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this Fogarty International Center R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs in the low-resource, high HIV-burden countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Major objectives of this FOA are to (1) expand and enhance innovative medical and/or nursing education models; (2) develop strategies that enable graduating health professional students to remain in their home country to practice, serve as faculty, and/or conduct research related to the implementation of PEPFAR and other public health priorities; (3) increase the quantity and retention of health professionals post-training where they are most needed within the country, including in neglected rural areas; (4) evaluate and disseminate best educational practices, including introducing and evaluating innovative training modalities and approaches; (5) enhance the capacity of African health professional students to conduct locally-relevant health research as an integral part of their professional training; (6) build the human and institutional resources needed to support research at the institution; (7) articulate and address national needs with respect to the health professional workforce, through consultation with appropriate stakeholders such as the Ministries of Health and Education; (8) enhance the recruitment and retention of qualified academic faculty; and (9) strengthen a national network of African health professions education and research institutions through partnership with at least one other health professions education institution within the country.
To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development; Research Experiences; Mentoring Activities; Curriculum or Methods Development; and Outreach.
Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not enter into the review of a subsequent application, the information that it contains allows IC staff to estimate the potential review workload and plan the review.
If interest exceeds the sponsor's institutional limit, the Office of the Vice President for Research may hold an internal Limited Submissions Competition and announce it at a later date.