The goal of ICOHRTA was to strengthen the national capacity to address the public health and scientific challenges of the evolving HIV/TB epidemic. The program trained PhD (n=6), Masters (n=64), and HIV/TB fellows (n=5) each conducted a research project on HIV or TB and made at least one publications (2 students had research projects on CVD in HIV). The ICOHRTA graduation rate was 98% and our carrier tracker shows that over 85% of former trainees are increasingly becoming successful independent scientists, educators, and public health practitioners in Uganda.
A total of 873 trainees benefited from the short-term courses e.g. Grants writing and Grants Award Management, TB Laboratory Skills and External Quality Assessment (EQA); Ethics, Human Rights and the Law on HIV/AIDS; Dissemination and Implementation Science; Research administration; Research methods; Research Ethics and Good Clinical Practice; Manuscript Writing Skills; Responsible Conduct of Research; HIV/TB Collaborative; Mentorship etc. Several training materials were developed under ICOHRTA that are used in Uganda and beyond.
Over the team years , the ICOHRTA established new graduate programs namely: i) Ms in Health Services Research at Makerere University School of Public Health (MUSPH) ii) Curriculum for PhD in Health Services Research at MUSPH iii) MPH at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) UST iv). Msc in Psychiatry and MPH at Gulu University. The ICOHRTA published the “Mentors Manual for Health Sciences Training in Africa”.
This manual was the first ever mentors manual that has been produced and published in Uganda. Through the ICOHRTA FIC D43 administrative supplement, an online course on Responsible Conduct Research (RCR) was developed and hosted on the JCRC website since Dec 2014 and over 421 trainees have benefited. Several programs in Uganda have adapt the ICOHRTA mentorship arrangements, faculty, execution of training courses, evaluation process (trainee career track approaches), trainee terms of references and handling trainee progress and remediation processes.
