Hanoi University of Public Health (HUPH): HUPH was the first institution in Vietnam to integrate IS into their curriculum and recognize the need to grow research capacity in this area. With HUPH’s role as a leading public health training and research institution in Vietnam, and history of impacting policymaking and practice through their substantive research partnership with Vietnam’s MOH, the WHO identified HUPH as their partnering institution to launch IS training in Vietnam. The WHO invited four HUPH faculty members to participate in their global IS train-the-trainer (TTT) program and followed up with funding to launch an HUPH-sponsored IS Certificate Program (Strengthening Capacity for Implementation Research. ARC builds on this foundation, and lessons learned, to expand the reach and impact of IS training at HUPH, nationally, and regionally.
New York University School (NYU) of Global Public Health: NYU also has significant experience implementing effective D43 training programs that include IS training as a core component. NYU’s new Global Center for Implementation Science (GCIS) recently launched a D&I Policy Training Institute, the first in the US. With the support of the University, GCIS launched a university-wide IS Research Working Group with 70+ members that offers a platform for research capacity building and networking opportunities. GCIS offers 1:1 mentorship on IS grant development, a works in progress series, workshops on writing IS grants and a wide range of other research support and capacity building resources. GCIS will provide visiting students the infrastructure to facilitate their research progress and training goals. GCIS will also serve as the NYU platform for bidirectional learning in which faculty from HUPH and NYU will engage with ARC trainees and NYU faculty and students, through HUPH faculty-led and NYU-HUPH co-led seminars and works-in progress meetings. These program components will provide an opportunity for NYU faculty and students to learn about solutions, developed in the Vietnamese context, for accelerating implementation and scale-up of HIV and NCD programs, gain a deeper understanding of the contextual challenges to implementing and scaling evidence-based NCD and HIV public health policies and interventions in global context, and in particular, learn from Vietnam and HUPH’s successful model for cross sector research collaborations and co-production of knowledge to solve public health challenges, a core component of effective implementation research. In summary, we HUPH and NYU will leverage their combined faculty expertise, resources and infrastructure (e.g., Centers, Training programs, Research Networks, Active grants) to create a strong foundation for implementing the ARC program.