UAB-AKU ITREOH

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EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. Pakistan, the sixth most populous country in the world, has challenging environmental and occupational issues such as water, air and noise pollution, increasing pesticide use,heavy metal poisoning, inadequate waste disposal and a range of other domestic, workplace and environmental hazards. Although interest has emerged in resolving these issues, relatively few initiatives have so far been taken, and there has been almost no systematic research in the area of environmental and occupational health. There are no university based training programs in Pakistan that are specifically designed to develop the necessary professionals to take on these challenges. This proposal is a collaborative effort between University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) and the Aga Khan University (AKU) of Karachi, Pakistan. The program willbuild efficiently on the successful UAB-AKU relationship of the UAB Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program and the newly awarded International Maternal and Child Health Research and Training program and theUAB- AKU Global Network Research Unit for maternal and child health. The purpose of the proposedprogram ininternational training and research in environmental and occupational health (ITREOH) is to strengthen and sustain, through collaborative research and training, the capability of Pakistani scientists to conduct environmental and occupational health research. The proposed training program is multidisciplinary and includes epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, occupational health, industrial hygiene, toxicology, health behavior, health policy and economics as applied to etiologic research, disease and environmental surveillance and intervention research in environmental and occupational health. The expected result will be a center of excellence in environmental and occupational health research at AKU, which will contribute to national and regional capacity in these fields. Training components will include short-term training in Pakistan that will consist of principle- and problem-based short courses; intermediate training in Pakistan that will provide mentorship and funds for pilot research, and that will also provide for new options within existing graduate and specialty training programs at AKU;long-term training that will provide more specialized and longer term educational opportunities at UAB at masters and doctoral levels. A web-based distance-learningprogram between UAB and AKU also will be developed jointly. The training program will promote the initiation of new environmental and occupational health research within the AKU-UAB institutions and facilitate long-term collaborative relationships between Pakistani and US investigatorsand trainees. DevelopingAKU's independent capacityto provideregionalleadershipin trainingand research should be an excellent long-term investment of Fogarty and NICHD resources. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================