Centers

The STAR Partnership responds to the growing awareness that social scientists could be more effectively trained to communicate the relevance and significance of their findings. A key innovation is the articulation of a theory-based model of policy-relevant research and our inclusion of policy translation as a fundamental aspect of engaged research. The intervention research that has been so common in Vietnam is limited not just because of the relative ineffectiveness of the interventions at influencing individual behavior, but because the scale of the epidemic demands research that leverages the practice of public health in order to shape health on a broad scale.

Policy-relevant social science involves research designed to generate findings of a level at which they can shape multi-sectoral policy and lead to population-level interventions to promote health. The STAR Partnership seeks to develop expertise not only in knowledge creation, but also in knowledge-brokerage. This emphasis on policy-relevant social science will enhance the impact of the Partnership’s pilot research and, even beyond that, offers the potential to develop a model of translation-related training that could be widely disseminated to improve the reach and impact of social science globally.