CIET ("Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies")

CIET is a group of non-profit foundations, charities, non-governmental organisations and institutes dedicated to building the community voice into planning. Professor Neil Andersson started CIET, Centro de Investigación de Enfermedades Tropicales (Tropical Disease Research Centre), in Mexico in 1985 to promote wider participation in health planning. In Canada, the name became "Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies," reflecting the broader application of epidemiological methods to research areas beyond the health field.

CIET has offices in Botswana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Africa, Nigeria, Canada, England and the United States of America. 

CIET research interests shift with the needs of its partner communities, from health to education, from agriculture to micro-regional development, from the impact of land mines to monitoring child rights, from public transport to the justice system. By involving community members in information gathering and analysis, CIET helps them participate, in an increasingly informed way, in decisions that affect their lives.

For more on CIET, visit our CIET Research website or our individual project pages: Social Audits in Nigeria , INSTRUCT, the Choice Disability Trial , Camino Verde , AK-NEAHR , and Safe Birth in Cultural Safety .

CIET in Canada

CIET has worked in Canada since 1994, building skills in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities to do research and to use research findings in planning. On October 1, 2013 CIETcanada merged with Participatory Research at McGill (PRAM) and moved its institutional base in Canada to the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University.

CIET has worked with over 200 communities on a range of health issues, including substance abuse, prenatal nutrition, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS and youth suicide. For more information, see a list of our projects related to Canadian Aboriginal health research.

Together with 52 research partners from six universities and several Aboriginal organizations, CIET houses the Anisnabe Kekendazone (Original Knowledge) Network Environment for Aboriginal Health Research (AK-NEAHR). This network funds training of Aboriginal health researchers across Canada through seed grants and fellowships. For more information, visit the AK-NEAHR.

In 2009, CIET and other academic and community partners received a grant to host the CIHR Centre for Intercultural Research on Prevention of Gender Violence  (CIPREV). This centre develops research theory, methods, and tools for the prevention of gender violence among First Nations and Inuit populations who migrate to urban centres, and among immigrants residing in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, with a focus on parenting and protective values from the cultures of origin.

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