Research Project
6647768
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Training Program (TP) in research bioethics described in this proposal is a complete revision, supported by Planning Grant 5 R25 TWO1600-02, of a previous one. It aims at developing and implementing a comprehensive program of studies and practical experiences responding to perceived needs of Latin American researchers and institutions and to the socioanthropological implications of the research enterprise. It constitutes a culturally-sensitive, regionally-based TP promoting capacity building, public awareness, and ethical decision making in biomedical, behavioral, and epidemiological studies. Its audiences are researchers, ethics committee members and officers/policymakers in private and public institutions. The TP is proposed by the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics of the University of Chile and a consortium of Latin American institutions (Javeriana University, Colombia; University of Puerto Rico; University of San Marcos, Peru; INTEC, Dominican Republic) and supported by North American ones (Case Western Reserve University, The Hastings Center, and the University of Toronto). The example and experience of mature bioethical thinking is thus linked to real-life, hands-on experience in a different sociocultural context. Along with theoretical and historical issues, the TP provides opportunities for selecting committee work, academic research, or policymaking activities as special areas of interest to trainees, who will be recruited among the best qualified professionals in the Region. The wide network of Representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), one in each country, and the close collaboration with PAHO Regional Program on Bioethics guarantee that selection and reinsertion of trainees in their home countries will be based on equitable consideration of needs, interests, and actual demand. Previous successful collaboration is described in this proposal. This TP will produce a group of professionals conversant with concepts and methods in research bioethics, capable of interacting with their peers in other countries, and prepared to assume active roles in planning and conducting " ethically sustainable" research activities. The strength of the proposal lies in the interaction between different institutions in both Hemispheres and the network provided by PAHO, thus combining relevant cultural context, academic quality, wide coverage, and long-term support in place. Continuous evaluation and active follow-up ensure that goals, objectives, and results can be monitored and new challenges timely met.
