Grant Writing and Scientific Peer Review Workshop Bogotá, Colombia, June 27-29, 2012 Sponsored by U.S. National Institutes of Health, Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social República de Colombia, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO)
The growing interest and need for collaborative research for health was well reflected in the nearly 400 applications submitted for the Grant Writing and Peer Review Workshop held in Bogotá for which 60 participants (30 from Colombia, 30 from other Andean countries and Central America) were selected following established merit criteria. The workshop provided key information and helpful guidance to promote collaborative research and successful applications to NIH competitive Speakers at the opening ceremony grants, and included a mock grant application review. Participants were mostly junior or senior faculty members/researchers and science administrators from research institutions in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua. The sponsoring institutions contributed to the travel awards for participants. This workshop contributes to the advancement of the regional Policy on Research for Health approved by the countries of the Americas in 2009. Given the encouraging evaluations and interest seen during the event, the organizing partners are considering the development of similar workshops in the near future. During her closing remarks the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Dr. Beatriz Londoño, stressed the need for more and better research to inform health care, health policy and the Opening remarks by Dr. Fernando Ramírez strengthening of health systems. She praised the lead of the National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health in the organization of the event and thanked the sponsors and the representatives from other contributing organizations such as CDC, Latin American Center for Malaria Research and Control, U.S. Agency for International Development, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Vanderbilt University, and Wellcome Trust. Dr. Londoño acknowledged participants highlighting that their excellence demonstrated through the merit based selection was needed to improve people’s health and emphasized that the workshop is among the various activities carried out to use research to strengthen the national health systems, pointing out that a knowledge translation workshops was being held Mock grant review process simultaneously to better integrate research findings into policies for health that will address the impact of non-communicable diseases. The Minister invited participants to partner with key institutions such as NIH to develop more and better relevant quality research to promote innovation and importantly, to address key public health issues that hamper social and economic development. Prepared by Luis Gabriel Cuervo (PAHO/WHO) with contributions from Kevin Bialy (FIC), Luis A. Salicrup (NCI) and Teri Brown (NCI) 8 August 2012