Striving for better health through health research in post-conflict Timor-Leste

Strengthening research capacity in developing countries is "one of the most powerful, cost-effective, and sustainable means of advancing health and development", according to the 1990 report of the International Commission on Health Research for Development [1]. The capacity to conduct high-quality and relevant health research and use the results to implement evidence-based policies clearly benefits health systems and advances health in general. This is true for any country, rich or poor. But the challenges to building this research capacity are far greater for developing countries, which struggle with low resources, poor infrastructure and diminished capacity.In the two decades following this report the world has seen huge growth in aid initiatives aimed at strengthening health-systems in low and middle income countries [2] and has heard increasing calls to strengthen their health research capacities [3-5]. Global partnerships for health research have been forged [5] and some of the relevant countries continue to report and reflect on endeavors to improve their own health research capacities [6-8]. There remains, however, a paucity of published work regarding concepts for building research capacity in developing countries. This paper is therefore novel in describing such an initiative and may serve to stimulate similar papers and debate from other nations.Developing countries carry 90% of the global burden of disease yet receive less than 10% of the global spending on health research [9]. A minimal amount of primary research is carried out in developing countries and this may be biased against for publication [10] or simply not published at all. Current systematic reviews do not generally reflect developing world priorities, and findings from systematic reviews provided by the developed world may not be feasible to implement in countries with fewer resources [11]. Thus developing countries simply cannot rely on the research findings of the developed world and must