The Quality of Collaboration among Medical Research Centers, Universities, Health Executives and the Community in Iran

A health research system is defined as a system for planning, coordinating, monitoring and managing health researchresources and activities, and for promoting research aimed at effective and equitable national health development.This study was conducted to describe the quality of mutual collaboration among medical research centers, universities, executiveorganizations and the community.In this situation analysis qualitative methods were applied. In-depth interviews were held with the heads of 20 research centers(RCs), 6 senior executive health administrators at national level, 10 vice chancellors at universities and 3 directors of private medicalresearch firms. In addition to the interviews, records and evidence were reviewed.The findings reveal that 86% of the RCs annual budget is secured by public sources. The collaboration among the RCs, universitiesand organizations is informal rather than formal. The cooperation between RCs and universities in policymaking, priority setting andknowledge production and utilization is stronger than that with other organs. The RCs have weak relationships with the community.About 20% of them have no relations with the private sector. The collaboration of RCs with the executive organizations andmanagers is also weak, especially in knowledge utilization and priority setting.It is concluded that the policies of medical research centers should be reoriented towards the basic health problems of the countryfacing executive organizations as well as the community. The collaboration between RCs and the universities, the private sector andNGOs should also be reinforced through networking and improvement of health information systems