Co-Creating and Implementing a Curriculum for Capacity Strengthening in Mental Health Research for Students and Early Career Researchers from Low-Resource Institutions

Grant Awardee: Shruti Bora

The project aimed to strengthen mental health research capacity among students and early-career researchers from low-resource institutions by co-creating a participatory curriculum with researchers, educators, and community stakeholders. Through a comprehensive needs assessment and collaborative curriculum development process, the project designed a workshop curriculum that integrates community-based approaches, social change perspectives, and practical research skills. The initiative also fostered partnerships with universities to support future implementation and wider adoption. 

Project Highlights: 

• Established a multidisciplinary advisory group to guide curriculum development. 

• Conducted a stakeholder-informed needs assessment to identify priority learning areas. 

• Developed a workshop curriculum manual for mental health research capacity strengthening. 

• Engaged three universities, with two expressing strong interest in future implementation. 

• Identified funding opportunities to pilot, evaluate, and scale the curriculum.