Annual Report Fiscal Year 2081/82 (2024/2025)

Abstract

Executive Summary Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) is the apex body to promote health research nationwide. It was established under the NHRC Act 1991 (2047 BS) with the aim of conducting, promoting, and coordinating for the betterment of the health status of Nepalese People. NHRC is publishing annual report each year since its establishment with the main aim of compiling all the activities carried out in NHRC in a systematic order and to disseminate information about the activities. This annual report includes an introduction of NHRC that has five chapters namely: Administration, Health Research, Ethical Review, Library, and Information and Publication. Administration reports governance activities (six Executive Board meetings in the fiscal year), staff recruitment and staffing updates, NHRC representation in national/international programs, and funding partners and budgets (Government budget plus partner grants). The report lists meeting dates and notes recruitment drives and coordination with the Public Service Commission. The health research section includes completed research studies and ongoing research studies. These are Research Uptake, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, Rice Fortification endline and acceptability, FACEUP, the Population Based Cancer Registry, NCD research on certain children and adolescents, COVID-19 vaccination preparedness, discovery of new medicines in plants for medicine, research in the Musahar population, and FA5/CLIMB climate research studies. Some key findings are: an extremely high rate of asthma in the NCD pilot (21.7%), improved diet in the rice-fortification endline, good COVID-19 vaccine coverage with lessons learnt locally, and encouraging lab results for certain medicines from plants. The research uptake activity has included disseminating the Annual Report and working on a dengue policy brief. NHRC’s ERB and Institutional Review Committees ensure ethical guidelines are adhered to; ERB remains approved by FERCAP. The chapter discusses how ethical checks, monitoring, and M&E procedures were implemented throughout the year. The NHRC library has initiated significant digitization efforts such as broadening the NEPMED repository, enhancing access by Research4Life/HINARI, refreshing the KOHA e-Library catalogue, and enhancing the VuFind discovery portal. Reference service, training support (though in limited additional funding), and expansion of the NEPMED, training, and digitization preservation are planned for the future by the NHRC library. NHRC conducted frequent training on preparing research proposals across various provinces. The Journal of NHRC continued publishing regular issues (Issues 64–66 is part of the list), and the publishing section assisted with various kinds of articles. Capacity development assisted in enhancing proposal preparation, research ethics, and data management work.