Annual report: Fiscal Year 2080/81 (2023/2024)

Abstract

Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) is the apex body to promote health research nationwide. It was established under the NHRC Act 2047 (1991) with the aim of conducting, promoting, and coordinating for the betterment of the health status of Nepalese People. NHRC is publishing annual report each year since its establishment with the main aim of compiling all the activities carried out in NHRC in a systematic order and to disseminate information about the activities. This annual report includes an introduction of NHRC that has five chapters namely: Administration, Health Research, Ethical Review, Library, and Information and Publication. The administration section is responsible for performing daily operations, overseeing staff, and maintaining records. This year NHRC has conducted nine board meeting and signed three Memorandum of Understanding. NHRC represented in several national and international workshops, seminars, meetings, and forums. Moreover, NHRC receives regular annual budget from the Government of Nepal since 2000 AD along with receiving budget from various national and international organizations. The research section of NHRC is responsible for conducting various research projects. In this fiscal year, NHRC conducted all together ten research projects, of which seven are completed and others are ongoing. Among the various objectives of NHRC, promoting responsible conduct of health research and regulation of all health-related research conducted in Nepal is one. To oversee the responsible conduct of research in Nepal, NHRC has published National Ethical Guidelines for Health Research and have formed Institutional Review Committees. This year Ethical Review Monitoring and Evaluation Section registered a total of 678 protocols of which 550 were approved. This year in total 73 Ethical Review Board Meeting were conducted. Furthermore, they conducted 12 monitoring visits, two training workshops and one research project connected to ethics. NHRC established library section with the main aim to provide research-based health information for all health professionals involved in research activities serving as a repository for health-related information and resources. Furthermore, NHRC library has established a network with other health research libraries and can access HINARI program set up by the WHO. Till now NHRC library can provide information of 11,400 journals (in 30 different languages), and 18,500 e-books for more than 100 countries. This year NHRC library has developed web-based NEPMED health journal repository, purchased books for NHRC user, and provided scientific indexed health journals information. In addition, capacity building section is responsible for conducting research and publishing NHRC journal. This year, we published six issues and have conducted seven trainings of which three were related to the health research proposal development, and four were related to data management and analysis.