Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA) is the representative body of more than 3000 pediatricians of Pakistan. The Association has a Central body, 4 Provincial Branches and a Federal Branch at the Federal area. Besides the Branches, the Association has a number of sub-specialty groups and a Research Division to take its mission forward.
According to Clause 18 of the Constitution of Pakistan Pediatric Association;
The Research Division of PPA shall be located at Peshawar. It shall formulate proposals and coordinate and implement research at national level. The Research Division shall be donated 10 % of the savings of all the National and Biennial Conferences of PPA for this purpose. The PPA-KP shall frame bye-laws for the functioning and administration of the Division. Its income and expenses, accounts and auditing. It shall present them for approval to the Executive Committee of PPA Centre and once approved, it shall come into force immediately.
The main objectives of the Research Division
1- Promote a culture of research and critical thinking among the members of PPA
2- Initiate and coordinate research on current pediatric problems at national level
3- Develop a list of priority research areas around child health and protection in Pakistan
4- Build a robust data/evidence based on common pediatric problems in Pakistan
5- Conduct training workshops on research methodologies
6- Collaborate with the Government ,WHO, UNICEF and other International Organizations interested in conducting research on child health
Ethics Review Board:
PPA has constituted an Ethical Review Board. All proposals are submitted before the Board for ethical clearance. The Board will review the submitted research proposals for ethical issues and advise the Steering committee accordingly. No research will be conducted without the prior review and approval of the proposal by the Ethics Review Board.
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Procedure for submitting Research proposals for funding
- The Research Division (RD) is a wing of PPA (Center) housed in KP. A steering Committee is responsible for running the business of the Division.
- Any PPA member (Life, Ordinary, Associate) or a Group of members in good standing, can submit a research proposal to the RD. Alternatively,we can also solicit proposals through announcement or direct approach to potential researchers. Proposals from Provinces should be submitted preferably to the Research Subcommittee at the Branch Level. This Sub Committee is composed of a Focal Person (President of the Branch) and 2/3 other members, nominated by the President. The Focal Person shall forward the proposal to the RD, with his/her remarks.
- After receipt of the proposal, the Steering Committee would do the initial review and shall get the opinion of one or more experts in the field. Mostly these experts will be from the sub specialty groups of PPA or senior retired professors. This review may not be needed or would just be a formality if the proposal is coming from the experts themselves specialty group.
- After approval of the proposal, the researcher/s will be asked to submit detail proposal and budget required. They will also get ethical approval from the local Institutional Review Board and submit it to the RD.
- 6- The Steering Committee will make a decision whether to fully or partially fund the project and communicate the decision to the Principal Researcher.
- The release of funds will be in installments. The Final Report will acknowledge that the study was supported by the RD-PPA