A multi-disciplinary network of social scientists, policy makers, and civil society to fight TB epidemic in the Post-Soviet countries

结核病仍然是世界范围内的主要死亡原因之一，尽管这种疾病是可以成功治疗的。东欧和中亚的后苏联国家被列入结核病控制的高度优先国家名单。通过研究其他现有的结核病网络，我们发现，这些网络往往将主要的利益相关者群体-研究人员、民间社会或决策者-联合起来，而研究人员网络更多地侧重于结核病流行的医学研究和社会研究，没有得到很好的代表。拟议的独特的多学科社会科学家（经济学家、公共卫生研究人员、社会学家、流行病学家、心理学家、犯罪学家、公共传播专家）、民间社会活动家和决策者网络将成为一个平台，不仅在利益攸关方群体内部，而且在整个利益攸关方群体之间不断交流知识，从而能够有效地采用最有效的方法来防治结核病流行。这种交流将使现有的研究能够为目前的政策和干预措施的制定提供信息，同时为今后制定与政策有关的研究议程和传播研究结果的可靠渠道。该网络的主要利益攸关方是民间社会组织（代表结核病、艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者、保健和公共卫生专业人员）、决策者和研究人员。该网络的目的是促进证据的生成，为公共卫生政策提供信息，以减少后苏联国家的结核病负担，并促进所有利益攸关方之间的持续知识交流。为达致这个目标，我们计划：1.为网络成员建立一个平台，以促进其现有活动（国家案例研究、工作文件、流行博客）并收集参考元数据。每年举行一次为期两天的政策对话和网络会议，并附在青年学者研究培训会议上，使他们能够参加政策对话。这些会议将为交流想法和讨论政策以及制定该区域的议程提供空间。3.通过青年学者研究支助方案为早期职业研究人员建设能力，这是拟议网络的一个新特点。4.通过网络研讨会和会议培训课程满足网络成员和青年学者的培训需求，运行工作文件系列，制定范围研究和参考元数据的方法，支持网络国家的结核病相关研究。为该地区制定了以结核病为重点的共同社会研究议程，并为参与国制定了定制议程，2.更好地了解国家、区域和国际的背景; 3.加强地方研究能力和政策对话，4.在国家内部和国家之间建立合作关系（封闭国家内部的研究人员、民间社会活动家和政治家的圈子，并促进国家内部和国家之间的多学科合作），5。更好地了解现有的研究数据和未来的数据需求。建议的网络是独一无二的，我们期望能留下一份持久的遗产，包括（i）建立合作关系，以便日后申请拨款;（ii）建立网络，以便日后进行新的合作;（iii）改变本地的研究文化，在研究的各个阶段，致力提高研究诚信和持份者参与的标准;（iv）改变政策对话的文化，其中包括研究证据和代表患者和专业人员的民间社会活动家的观点;（v）通过获得参考元数据和范围研究的证据，促进未来的研究。

Tuberculosis remains one of the leaders of mortality causes worldwide, despite the fact that the disease is successfully treatable. Post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are on the list of high-priority countries for TB control. Exploring other existing networks around TB, we see that they tend to unite the key stakeholder groups among each other - researchers, the civil society or the policy makers with the researchers' network focusing more on medical research and social research around the TB epidemic being not well represented. The proposed unique multidisciplinary network of social scientists (economists, public health researchers, sociologists, epidemiologists, psychologists, criminologists, public communication experts), civil society activists and policy makers will become a platform for ongoing knowledge exchange not only within the groups of stakeholders but across enabling effective adoption of what works best in fighting TB epidemic. This exchange will enable the use of existing research to inform current development of policies and interventions, while establishing a policy-relevant research agenda for the future and reliable venues for dissemination of the results. The key stakeholders of the Network are civil society organizations (representing TB, HIV/AIDS patients, healthcare and public health professionals), policy makers and researchers. The aim of the network is to facilitate the generation of evidence to inform public health policies to reduce the tuberculosis (TB) burden in post-Soviet countries and promote ongoing knowledge exchange among all stakeholders. To achieve this aim, we plan to: 1. Create a platform for network members to promote their existing activities (country case studies, working papers, popular blogs) and collect reference metadata.2. Hold policy dialogue and networking meetings once a year over 2 days attached to research training meetings for young scholars to allow for them to participate in policy dialogue. The meetings will provide space to share ideas and discuss policies, as well as to develop agenda for the region. 3. Build capacity for early career researchers via the Young Scholar Research Support programme, which is a novel feature of the proposed network. 4. Support TB-relevant research in the Network countries by addressing training needs of the network members and young scholars via webinars and training sessions at the meetings, running of the working paper series and developing methodology for scoping studies and reference metadata We foresee the following outcomes of the Network existence: 1. Developed common TB-focused social research agenda for the region and bespoke agendas for the participating countries, 2. Better understanding of the context nationally, within the region and internationally; 3. Improved local research capacity and policy dialogue, 4. Established collaborations within and across countries (closing the circle of researchers, civil society activists and politicians within countries and enabling within and multi-disciplinary collaboration across countries), 5. Better understanding of available data for research and future data needs. The proposed network is unique and we expect to leave a lasting legacy in the form (i) of established collaborations to lead to future grant applications; (ii) an established network to enable new collaborations in the future; (iii) changed local research culture striving for higher standards of research integrity and engagement of stakeholders throughout all the stages of research; (iv) changed culture of policy dialogue, which incorporates both research evidence and views of civil society activists representing patients and professionals; (v) enablement of future research through access to reference metadata and evidence from scoping studies.