South-East Asia Regional Conference on Epidemiology

How to write a research proposal?
Soumya Swaminathan
There are several challenges in writing a research proposal. But the first question is: why undertake
research? Medical colleges in the WHO <strong>South</strong>-<strong>East</strong> <strong>Asia</strong> Region are really not doing as much research
as they could or should be doing. This is an area with a lot of scope. Senior faculty should encourage
their junior colleagues and students to do research.
There are many reasons why one should be doing research. Firstly, research advances basic
knowledge, allows for ongoing improvements in therapeutic, preventive and diagnostic strategies and
identifies and addresses gaps and challenges in health care delivery (Box 1). For programme managers,
a research question could be anything from a very upstream issue like lack of proper diagnostics or
a drug to a very downstream issue of implementation of the health care programme. Research within
policy and programme helps to support programmatic changes. It provides feedback to personnel
who are involved in carrying out the work and can motivate them to actually change practices. It
has been shown time and again that investment in research for health is directly linked to economic
development as well as to improved health care delivery.
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Box 1: Why undertake research?
Advances basic knowledge in the field.
Allows for ongoing improvement in diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic strategies.
Identifies and addresses gaps and challenges in health c are delivery (upstream to
downstream).
Supports programme and policy-decisions.
Provides feedback to personnel and can motivate them to change practices.
Investment in research is directly linked to economic development and improved health
care delivery.
Nowadays, there is more emphasis on operational research or implementation research. Many
conferences used to have just clinical, behavioural or basic research track but now they have operational
and implementation research tracks as well. The goal is to provide an assessment of programme
designs, operations and outcomes. It is very useful to conduct this type of research when there are
sudden changes in policies or programmes.
What does implementation research do? It asks the following questions: what is happening in the
programme? Is this what is expected or desired? Is this the kind of outcome wanted? Are the cure rates
proper or is a vaccine working? Or is a particular strategy working? This is what implementation
research will answer. It can address almost any phenomenon that is related to the way a programme