Training Objectives

To facilitate capacity, professional development, mentorship, and networking of EL that leads to the development and execution of global collaborative projects that help attain the WHO’s “25by25” goal.

Specific objectives:

1. Identify EL and assist in their professional development through a series of online and face-face seminars.
2. Build collaborations between researchers and implementers across disciplines in the realm of CVD prevention and control.
3. Promote awareness of multiple disciplines within CVD research.
4. Develop mentor (established researchers) and mentee (EL) relationships to promote capacity building.
5. Use the training curriculum/”think tank” seminars as vehicles to develop tangible projects and protocols for seed funding for larger collaborative projects that will help achieve the “25 x 25” goal.

Emerging leaders (EL) will participate in ongoing, online webinars covering fundamental topics in the field of CVD epidemiology and methodology, health system and policy research, and implementation science/knowledge translation (KT). The EL will also meet face to face to participate in an interactive think tank seminar to develop tangible projects to be implemented with a goal of reducing premature CVD death by 25% by 2025.

Themes and streams of training

Each cycle of training will have an overall theme (secondary prevention, e.g.) and within each theme, ~3 streams will be developed from a variety of different but related perspectives, namely: intervention studies, health systems evaluation, and development of evidence-based policies.  These themes will include topic areas related to targets/indicators that are part of the WHF’s “25by25” goal and the WHF’s Prevention Roadmap.  For example, in the theme of secondary CVD prevention, three potential streams could include:

1. Mixed methods evaluation of secondary prevention detection, treatment and control barriers and focused KT activities (health systems/system-based evaluation).
2. Pragmatic RCT (e.g. – comparing the effect of free-of-cost fixed dose combination therapy with free-of-cost usual care for CVD prevention, reminders to enhance adherence or use of treatment supporters, task shifting, etc. [implementation science]).
3. Systematic review of local, regional, and national level policies for CVD prevention or risk factor control (health policy research) coupled with case studies on policies that improve drug affordability.

Seed funding for collaborative research

Seed funding for proposed research projects will be provided by the WHF EL program to initiate projects with the explicit expectation that EL will submit for additional external funding from local, regional, national, and international sources for larger, collaborative projects targeting “25by25”.