# A decade of health research capacity building in Honduras: institutional transformation, challenges, and lessons learned

## TL;DR

This paper explores how Honduras built health research capacity over a decade through education, international collaboration, and institutional development, despite ongoing financial and structural challenges.

## Contribution

The study provides the first longitudinal analysis of health research capacity building in Honduras, emphasizing the role of local leadership and returning scientists.

## Key findings

- Honduras expanded scientific capacity through graduate training and institutional strengthening despite financial constraints.
- The Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología has produced over 170 publications since 2014, representing 20% of UNAH’s health-related output.
- Challenges include chronic underinvestment in R&D, rigid bureaucracy, and brain drain, but international partnerships and local leadership have been key enablers.

## Abstract

Honduras 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 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH).

This 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 Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología (IIM).

Alumni 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.

More 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.

The 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.

Main findings: Honduras has expanded its scientific capacity through graduate training, institutional strengthening, and international collaboration, despite persistent structural and financial constraints.Added knowledge: This analysis provides the first longitudinal account of how local leadership, returning scientists, and partnerships have gradually shaped a national research environment in Honduras.Global health impact for policy and action: The Honduran experience highlights that sustained investment and coordinated strategies can foster research systems in low-resource settings, offering lessons for strengthening scientific capacity across Central America and other comparable regions.

Main findings: Honduras has expanded its scientific capacity through graduate training, institutional strengthening, and international collaboration, despite persistent structural and financial constraints.

Added knowledge: This analysis provides the first longitudinal account of how local leadership, returning scientists, and partnerships have gradually shaped a national research environment in Honduras.

Global health impact for policy and action: The Honduran experience highlights that sustained investment and coordinated strategies can foster research systems in low-resource settings, offering lessons for strengthening scientific capacity across Central America and other comparable regions.