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Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC)

Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) is the national apical body for promoting health research across the country. NHRC was established in 1991 by an Act of Parliament and was given the responsibility to promote and coordinate health research for improvement of the health status of people of Nepal. The major focus of NHRC is on research regulation, evidence generation, translation of evidence into policy and practice, and capacity building of national scientists in the areas of health research and evidences.

NHRC serves as the main national institution responsible for technical and ethical review of proposals submitted by individual health researchers, national authorities, NGOs, INGOs and universities. After appropriate review, Ethical Review Board (ERB) of NHRC approves these proposals. In its role of generating evidences, NHRC carries out research on its own on national health issues aligning with the national health priorities.

NepMed, Nepal MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online)

List of Approved Institutional Review Committee (IRC), NHRC

The capacity building roles of NHRC encompasses providing education, organizing trainings on various aspects of health system research to national scientists with special emphasis on promoting the research competency of young researchers. NHRC has been providing health research grants to the researchers in order to enhance the research activities throughout the country.

NHRC also conducts workshops and dissemination programs to facilitate uptake of research findings by the policymakers into health system policies and practices. Similarly, NHRC facilitates access to research finding from different research reports, journals, books, magazines etc. through the library digital database and the NHRC Journal.

Objectives

• To do or cause to do study and research on health problems and issues being encountered or likely to be encountered in future.
• To conduct programs relating to consultancy service and information to make the study and activities relating to health research more useful.
• To acquire global and national level evidence on health related problems, and inform the Government of Nepal for evidence-based policy making and planning.

Functions

• Conduct research in the various fields relating to health within the Nepal aligning with the health priorities identified in the National Health Policy of the Government of Nepal.
• Provide a specific policy direction for the regulation, promotion, implementation, management and utilization of health research in Nepal.
• Define health research need and set research priorities for the national health system.
• Monitor and evaluate research works related to health and make appropriate recommendations.
• Publish and publicize the research experiences and the results of research relating at the national and international levels.
• Coordinate with foreign researchers and research institution to carry out some part of the research in a foreign country if there is no facility to carry out such research within the Nepal.
• To obtain information as to the study and research or works done on health-related various problems appearing in the world and give information to the Government of Nepal.

Special Rights of the Council:

• The council may issue necessary directives terms and conditions to the person or organization involved in research work relating to health under section 11 of NHRC Act No. 29 of the year 1991 (Research means research involving examination).
• In case any person or organization carries out research works without obtaining permission under Section 11 or does not abide by the terms and conditions as prescribed by the Council while carrying out research work, the Council may warn such person or organization or prohibit carrying out the research work for a specified period.

Major activities

• Screening, reviewing and approval of research proposals.
• Providing technical guidance and possible support including services for scientists, researchers.
• Conducting training workshops in Health Systems Research Methodology, Research Management and other fields of research.
• Providing e-mail, photocopying and Med-line search facilities and other information for researchers for a free.
• Monitoring and evaluation of all the researches conducted at the field level.
• Providing various kind of Research Grants to the most deserving researchers.
• Compiling research related books, research reports, national and international scientific journals and Bulletins.
• Publishing and archiving research related materials including publication of Research Journals, Bulletins and Reports.
• Networking of health researchers and research institutions / agencies / organizations involved in health research Serving as a repository for research related information and resources.
• Disseminating activities for research based information.
• Development of research proposals on health related sciences.
• Developing and conducting collaborative research with research institutions / agencies / organizations within and outside Nepal.
• Making collaborative work with WHO, bilateral, multilateral and other funding agencies / organizations.
• Developing the research units in the five development regions of Nepal and coordinating the overall aspects of health research in these regions.

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Initiations 

• NHRC Digital Library
• Nepal Clinical Trial Registry
• NepMed, Nepal MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online)
• National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal
• Ethical Review Online System
• The Journal of the Nepal Health Research Council (JNHRC)

Related: Nepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL)

Research priority areas

• Priority Area 1: Health Care Delivery System
• Priority Area 2: Communicable/Infectious Diseases
• Priority Area 3: Non Communicable Diseases
• Priority Area 4: Neonatal And Child Health
• Priority Area 5: Reproductive Health
• Priority Area 6: Mental Health And Substance Abuse
• Priority Area 7: Injuries, Accidents And Violence
• Priority Area 8: Nutrition And Food Safety
• Priority Area 9: Environmental And Occupational Health
• Priority Area 10: Traditional Medicine
• Priority Area 11: Geriatric Health
• Priority Area 12: Miscellaneous

Recent publications

• NHRC CPD Guidelines for Providing Credit Hours to Participants of Research Trainings and Conferences
• List of Approved Institutional Review Committee (IRC), NHRC
• Comparative Evaluation of Commercially available Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits for the use of Screening of Suspected Cases of Novel Coronavirus infection in Nepal
• Preparedness and Readiness of Government of Nepal Designated COVID Hospitals
• Preparedness and Readiness of Government of Nepal Designated Hospital running COVID Clinics
• Nepal STEPS Survey 2019- Province wise Fact Sheets

MORE Publications:NATIONAL PLAN, POLICY & GUIDELINES

Information was collected from various documents, official website, reports and government publications. 

Recommended Citation: Public Health Update. Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) [Internet]. [cited 2020 Jul 5]. Pokhara. Nepal. Available from: https://www.publichealthupdate.com/nepal-health-research-council-nhrc/ 

Related 

• List of Approved Institutional Review Committee (IRC), NHRC
• NHRC approval processing fee (Effective from March 7, 2018)