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Global Health Econ Sustain International scientific cooperation in public health

Figure 1. Dynamics behind the execution of the “Syphilis No!” Project. Image created with Adobe Illustrator.

Four of UFRN’s PDI’s many initiatives should be the performance evaluation system of the international
highlighted. First, promoting international cooperation cooperation project.
between researchers and undergraduate and graduate These dimensions, grouped here as technical-scientific,
students. Second, enhancing internationalization agents investment, impact, and products, each include a set
through partnerships with international institutions. of indicators that were validated in the interviews. The
Third, building international collaboration in developing dimensions identified are consistent action research
research of global interest and partnerships that encourage and balanced scorecard (BSC) (Kaplan & Norton, 1997)
UFRN researchers to cooperate with international
research. Finally, participating in national or international in that they allow for interventions and corresponding
cooperation networks, whose goals and proposed actions adjustments to monitor and evaluate cooperation activities.
strengthen the institution’s research areas (Universidade Such interactions allow restructuring according to priorities
Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 2021). and solutions based on the reality under study. This phase
prompted the development of the project’s framework.
2.3. Validation of new indicators
2.5. Data collection for indicators
In this phase, key project participants, including public
health managers, project leaders, and experts in syphilis In a further step, we collected data from project management
and other STIs, were interviewed. All interviewees had documents, cooperation activities, and international
national and international experience. In addition, we took cooperation agreements signed by the UFRN as part of the
into account the premise of action research, which provides “Syphilis No!” Project. Documents included work plans,
for the need to monitor decision-making (Thiollent, 2022; reports, technical notes, and other records of cooperation
Tripp, 2005). activities, such as data from the Virtual Learning
Environment of the Brazilian Health System (AVASUS).
The interviews were critical for validating and
identifying other indicators for international health Once the sources were organized, they were coded
cooperation. They also supported the validation of the panel according to the typology of international cooperation
of performance indicators for international cooperation in activities between January 2018 and July 2023, e.g.,
the project implementation. The guiding questions during technical notes and cooperation agreements. At this
the interviews were: stage, we realized that we needed an automated system to
(i) What do you think of the dimensions/perspectives of monitor the indicators, which we then developed as a tool
the performance management system? to evaluate the performance of cooperation activities.
(ii) What indicators do you think should be added to this
system to better evaluate performance? 2.6. Development of framework applied to the
“Syphilis No!” Project
2.4. Building dimensions for indicators Figure 2 shows the model of a performance measurement
In implementing action research as a model for the panel system, which is the main result of this research. It is
Freitas (2021) proposed, dimensions were created to based on the BSC method adapted by Freitas (2021)
group the new indicators and advance the perspectives of and applied to the project’s international cooperation

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3037