ArticleGlobal health action2025
A decade of health research capacity building in Honduras: institutional transformation, challenges, and lessons learned.
Article in Global health action, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundHonduras has historically faced major barriers to building a sustainable health research system, including minimal R&D investment and limited institutional infrastructure. A Canadian-funded initiative (2007-2012) established the first research-oriented MSc program, a non-clinical ethics board, and modern laboratories at the
objectiveThis article examines how health research capacity evolved between 2013 and 2025, highlighting long-term outcomes, enablers, and barriers, and situating these within a regional Central American comparison. The narrative, largely anecdotal, reflects on the experience and impact of biomedical research at UNAH, particularly through the
methodsAlumni trajectories and institutional transformations are illustrated with concrete examples. Bibliometric analysis contextualizes scientific output, complemented by broader indicators (GDP, R&D investment, tertiary education, PhDs per million) from World Bank sources.
resultsMore than 30 MSc graduates have strengthened biomedical and public health institutions, with several completing doctoral training abroad and returning to Honduras. Since its formal creation in 2014, the IIM has produced over 170 publications, representing more than 20% of UNAH's health-related output since 2012. Challenges to sustainability include chronic underinvestment (< 0.1% GDP in R&D), rigid bureaucracy, limited career pathways, and brain drain. Enablers have been international partnerships, the academic diaspora, and strong local leadership.
conclusionThe Honduran case illustrates how targeted, multi-level investment in individuals, institutions, and governance can foster long-term research capacity in resource-constrained settings, while underscoring the need for national policies, career structures, private sector engagement, and sustained international collaboration.
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