How can PhD research contribute to the global health research agenda?

Abstract

We suggest that PhD and post-doctoral researchers are a strong, untapped resource with the potential to make a real contribution to global health research (GHR). However, we raise some ethical, institutional, and funding issues that either discourage new researchers from entering the field or diminish their capacity to contribute. We offer a number of recommendations to Canadian academic and non-academic institutions and funders, aiming to generate discussion among them about how to overcome these constraints. We need changes in the way graduate research is organised and funded, to create opportunities to work collaboratively within established low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)/Canadian research partnerships. We urge changes in the way that institutions fund, recognise, value, and support GHR, so that established researchers are encouraged to develop long-term LMIC relationships and mentor new Canadian/LMIC researchers. We ask funders to reconsider additional GHR activities for support, including strategic training initiatives and dissemination of research results. We also encourage the development of alternative institutions that can provide training and mentoring opportunities. GHR faces many challenges. If we address those that reduce our potential to contribute, we can become real partners in GHR, working towards equitable global health and solutions to priority health issues.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the encouragement and helpful comments of Erica Di Ruggiero and Vic Neufeld. We thank all participants and organisers of the CCGHR Summer Institute for New Global Health Researchers, Dalhousie University, Halifax, 11–15 July 2004. A summary report is available at www.ccghr.ca/documents/SummerInstitute2004.pdf.

This article was first published in Canadian Journal of Public Health 97(2): 145-8 (2006), and has been reproduced with kind permission of the Canadian Public Health Association.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan H. Walker

Susan H. Walker (corresponding author) is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University.

Veronic Ouellette

Veronic Ouellette MD, MSc, CCFP is a PhD student in the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, and Student Representative on the Board of the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR).

Valéry Ridde

Valéry Ridde is a post-doctoral fellow in the International Health Unit at the University of Montreal. He was awarded a PhD in community health by Laval University in Quebec and holds a DESS in Public Management from Dijon University in France.