Page 32 - The lraternational Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand.indd

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XV-2023

Set up and management of the Competitive Research Fund (CRF)
The CRF was designed as a vehicle to build practical capacity amongst UHS

students and faculty. Its set up has been complemented by workshops on research
topics and regular coaching through senior researchers. These activities have

proceeded through six major stages: (1) establishment of the CRF committee,
(2) organization of research workshops, (3) awarding of CRF grants, (4) CRF award

contracts, (5) execution of research projects, and (6) monitoring of research projects.

(1) Establishment of CRF committee. |The CRF committee was convened at project

start. It comprises 3 key personnel from the CRF Project Team, and 5 renowned Lao
and international researchers, the majority of which were residents in Lao PDR. CRF

committee responsibilities include reviewing and scoring CRF applications, awarding
of CRF grants, mentorship of CRF awardees (5-7 awardees per 1 committee member),

monitoring research projects under their mentorship, and approving the final
manuscript for publications.

(2) Research workshops. CRF awards have been combined with theoretical and

practical workshops. These follow a sequence throughout the 8-12 months of the
roposal Development Workshop (delivered before the grants were awarded), and

(B) Research Methodology Workshop, where the latter is longer and comprises
four modules (study design, data analysis, manuscript writing, and dissemination of

the research outputs). These four workshops were organized in 3-4 months intervals.
In these workshops, CRF awardees were given opportunity to present their research

progress (Figure 2).

A Research Support Model for Research Capacity Building on
24 Health Science: A Case Study in Lao PDR