Table 3 Challenges cited related to poor human resource capacity in research institutes

Lack of skilled, qualified, senior, or experienced researchers

Poor response to our vacancy announcements. We do not receive enough applications with the required qualifications. We recruit people who have less skill and work experience. We have to train them, and after getting the training and acquiring enough experience of one or years, they leave us. That’s why we say it seems [we are a] training center. (KII, Research Institute)

Unattractive salaries, frequent staff turnover, and inadequate staffing level

In public sector health institutions, the salary for researchers may be very low. So, it will be very difficult to retain and motivate high-caliber researchers in the field; so this is also a very important part in which the civil service and the government should also think of arrangements for these calibers. (KII, National Policymaker)

Weak research culture among researchers

Research cultures (i.e. in terms of ethics, transparency, practical based, multidisciplinary approaches, creating synergy, designed system, terminal report regardless of who funded it, etc.) are not deep-rooted in each of the staff members. Among all these reports, project management is the main weakness (KII, University)

Poor/lack of a plan for human resource and retention of experienced and skilled researchers

You find a human resource component is still a pressing challenge because keeping an experienced researcher in place is difficult. The retention issue we have, [there have been] some improvements currently but when the market outside the institute is lucrative, researchers go away. (KII, Research Institute)