Abstract
BACKGROUND: HIV clinicians and program implementers in Nigeria have limited implementation research training opportunities. We developed a virtual implementation research training program (iTRAIN) for clinicians and HIV program staff implementing the Intensive Combination Approach to Roll Back the Epidemic in Nigerian Adolescents (iCARE Nigeria) study. METHODS: iTRAIN was developed and facilitated by iCARE Nigeria investigators from Nigeria and the United States with extensive implementation research experience. The nine-session online course covered core principles of implementation research. incorporating developing a relevant concept note embedded into iCARE. Between September 2021-2022, content was delivered through asynchronous pre-recorded lectures and readings, followed by facilitator-led synchronous sessions. All six study site teams were assigned a course facilitator for mentoring to develop implementation research proposals nested in the iCARE study. We conducted pre- and post-training surveys to evaluate iTRAIN using the Kirkpatrick Framework and conducted analysis using explanatory mixed methods. FINDINGS: We enrolled 42 participants (55% male, 48% clinicians), with 50% of enrollees reporting no IR experience. Completion rate was 95%; 79% of participants rated the course overall as "excellent", and 79% reported that their goal of gaining implementation research knowledge were met "a lot". IR knowledge increased "a lot" in 71%, and 97% would "probably or definitely" use their iTRAIN knowledge in future research. All six sites developed implementation research concept notes addressing topics relevant to iCARE Nigeria, with four implemented. CONCLUSION: iTRAIN represents a successful embedded implementation research virtual training and mentoring program which resulted in increased participant knowledge and capacity. Our training model can serve as a blueprint for study-embedded implementation research capacity-building in Nigeria and similar settings. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43477-025-00152-y.