COMMUNITY -FOCUSED ORAL HEALTH FOR EQUITY

CORE Project Kenya

Capacity Building

CORE Project Kenya strengthens the skills, confidence, and leadership of researchers, health professionals, students, community actors, and institutions working to improve oral health equity.

Sustainability Through Capacity Building

Capacity Building is a core part of the CORE Project’s commitment to long-term oral health research sustainability. The project supports early career oral health researchers, community members, and partner institutions to develop practical skills in research, data management, community engagement, policy translation, and implementation.

The aim is not only to deliver short-term training, but to strengthen local research leadership and institutional capacity so that oral health equity work can continue beyond the life of the project.

Why Capacity Building matters

Oral health has historically received limited attention within public health research, policy, and service planning. Strengthening local capacity helps ensure that oral health research is locally led, contextually relevant, ethically grounded, and useful for policy and practice.

Capacity building matters because it:

Researchers

Supports early career oral health researchers.

Quality

Improves the quality of oral health research methods and data use.

Skills Building

Builds skills in community engagement, policy translation, and dissemination.

Research to Action

Helps ensure that research findings are translated into practical public health action.

What the CORE Project is doing

Training needs assessment

CORE conducts training needs assessments to understand existing oral health research training, identify strengths and weaknesses, and determine major gaps in research capacity. This helps ensure that training activities respond to real needs rather than offering generic support.

Online learning resources

CORE supports the development of online training resources to expand access to oral health research learning opportunities. These resources complement face-to-face training and help reach researchers and practitioners who may not be able to attend in-person sessions.

Mentorship for early career researchers

The project supports online mentoring for junior and early career researchers. Mentorship provides individual guidance, research career support, and opportunities to learn from experienced researchers locally, regionally, and internationally.

Community training

Capacity building also includes one-day training events for community members. These sessions introduce community participants to oral health research and strengthen their ability to contribute meaningfully to Community Engagement and Involvement activities.

Postgraduate training opportunities

The wider programme includes opportunities for selected researchers to pursue advanced training in dental public health through postgraduate scholarships. These opportunities are designed to strengthen long-term oral health research leadership.

Short research methods courses

The project supports short research methods courses tailored to country-specific needs. These courses may cover diverse research topics and methodologies relevant to oral health, public health, health systems, equity, and implementation research.

Who Benefits

The capacity building work benefits:

  • Early career oral health researchers.

  • Established researchers seeking additional methodological support.

  • Dental and public health professionals.

  • Postgraduate students.

  • Community forum members.

  • Community link workers.

  • Partner institutions.

  • Policy and implementation actors involved in oral health equity work.

Capacity Building Outputs

The capacity building component is expected to generate:

Training needs assessment findings.

Country-specific training and capacity building strategies.

Mentorship opportunities.

Community training sessions.

Stronger networks for future oral health research collaboration.

Annual training evaluation reports.

The CORE Project is a community-focused oral health research project advancing equity through evidence, community engagement, policy reform and health system strengthening in Kenya and across global partner countries

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