The Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University, led by Associate Professor Dr. Waranuch Pitiphat, has been awarded a training grant from the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) & Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Awarding Number: 1D43DE032294-01A1, USA in order to carry out the training program for sustainable strength of oral health research capacity among Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in Southeast Asia for 5 years, between May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2027.
The goal of the training program is to enhance and support in order to develop the skills, and also exchange knowledge of clinical research in dentistry in Southeast Asia, under the name of “Clinical and Public Health Research Training in Oral Health for Southeast Asia”. This program comes from the cooperation between the Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University, Faculty of Dentistry, Thammasat University, and University of Washington School of Dentistry, USA.
The training program consists of five sub-projects. The first one is Short-term training. It is a 5-day workshop on clinical research methods, conducted in Thailand or other Southeast Asian countries annually from Year 1 to Year 4. The second is Intermediate-term training (Summer Institute in Clinical Dental and Craniofacial Research Methods). It is an 8-week program at the UW COHO Institute in Clinical Research Methods in Seattle. The trainees will participate in the program online for 6 weeks and in Seattle for 2 weeks. The third one is Medium-term training (International Short Course Training in Research Methodology & Biostatistics). It is a 4-month Training in Research Methodology and Biostatistics at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University. The fourth one is Non-degree research training which allows the trainees to do research in their home country under the guidance of a local mentor as well as UW and Thai faculty. The last one is Long-term training (PhD Training). This program is to support junior faculty from Southeast Asian dental schools to pursue Ph.D. in Oral Science (Clinical, Epidemiological and Public Health) pathway at Khon Kaen University and Thammasat University.
This training program encourages the trainees to develop further in their careers and develop and advance oral health research for Southeast Asia. In addition, Khon Kaen University and Thammasat University also give full support to this program and will be an important center for oral health research in Southeast Asia.
