Direct: enhancing bioethics capacities at kamuzu university of health sciences (kuhes) - NIH/fogarty international research ethics education and curriculum development award (R25): direct: enhancing…

The National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center awarded Kamuzu University of Health Sciences $794,173 on September 22, 2025, under the International Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.989) to develop and deliver a comprehensive masters-level bioethics curriculum at the university in Malawi.

The award funds the creation of a locally administered bioethics education program building on existing modules in the university's Master of Public Health program. The curriculum development focuses on ethics of implementation research in health within resource-constrained settings, clinical care ethics, and public health practice ethics. A distinctive component addresses bioethics in mental health research, policy, and practice, developed collaboratively with the university's Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. The program will serve students and professionals in allied health, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, biomedical research, and other health-related disciplines through curriculum modules designed during Malawi-based collaborative workshops engaging local health professionals, practitioners, policymakers, and students. Supplementary activities include developing policy recommendations for mental health research in sub-Saharan Africa, strengthening bioethics teaching capacity of local faculty and program graduates, publishing a casebook of bioethics case studies from the program, and disseminating bioethics and research ethics information through institutional channels.

The period of performance runs through March 31, 2030, with work performed in Malawi. The award supports NIH stewardship of its substantial research portfolio in Malawi, which includes studies in HIV implementation research, mental health research training, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and implementation science.

Direct: enhancing bioethics capacities at kamuzu university of health sciences (kuhes) - NIH/fogarty international research ethics education and curriculum development award (R25): direct: enhancing bioethics capacities at kamuzu university of health sciences (kuhes) abstract/program summary the overarching goal of our developing research ethics education and curriculum development award (direct) is to collaboratively strengthen bioethics capacities at kamuzu university of health sciences (kuhes) in malawi through the development of a comprehensive and locally administered masters-level educational program targeting students and professionals in allied health, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, biomedical research and other health-related disciplines. This new program will build on current bioethics modules in the kuhes flagship MPH program. The curriculum will focus on the broad development of analytic skills related to the ethics of implementation research health in resource-constrained settings, including associated ethical issues in clinical care and public health practice. To ensure local relevance, the design and content of the program's educational modules will be collaboratively developed through malawi-based curriculum development workshops involving local collaborators, health professionals and practitioners, policy-makers and students. An innovative feature of this program will be a focus on the neglected issue of bioethics in mental health research, policy and practice, to be developed in collaboration with the department of psychiatry and mental health at kuhes. This program will be reinforced and complemented by the supplementary aims of developing policy recommendations for mental health research in sub-saharan africa, strengthening bioethics teaching capacities of local faculty and former program students, publishing a casebook of bioethics case-studies developed through the program, and disseminating bioethics and research ethics news through a kuhes bioethics newsletter. We believe that a comprehensive and collaboratively developed bioethics educational program, built on longstanding partnerships between the leading malawian health institutions and university of north carolina-chapel hill, will have a substantial impact on students, their future institutions, and the culture of health research in the region.