Engagement ensures policy-relevant research by enabling researchers to consider the needs and inputs of stakeholders into research questions; and research-based policy by enabling stakeholders to trust, access, and apply research evidence [
8]. As part of the scouting visit, before starting a study, SOAR researchers assess the existence of a forum for engaging stakeholders. For some SOAR studies researchers identified pre-existing technical working groups (TWGs)—such as a pediatric AIDS TWG—that they used effectively as forums for engaging stakeholders, rather than creating a study-specific research advisory committee (RAC). In most SOAR studies, however, it was necessary for the researchers to form study-specific RACs. To establish the RAC, they used the tool,
Advisory Panel Terms of Reference (ToR) Checklist, from the RU guide, to facilitate agreement of RAC members on their modus operandi and elect a chair. The most common stakeholders engaged are National AIDS Councils (NAC) and the HIV program in the Ministries of Health (MOH) at the national and sub-national levels. Usually, national level stakeholders develop policies and program guidelines while sub-national level stakeholders make operational decisions for implementing these programs. In addition to the HIV program, researchers have engaged appropriate sections of the government for the topic being studied. For example, a study on the family planning needs of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Tanzania [
13] engaged the reproductive health division of the MOH in addition to the HIV program. SOAR researchers have also engaged donors and providers of services that are under investigation, who are crucial for taking up findings to improve these services. In addition, researchers engaged service beneficiaries such as young people. For example, the RAC of the Zambia Project YES! study [
14] includes young people living with HIV (YPLHIV). In the RAC or TWG meetings, SOAR researchers present study objectives and methodologies using PowerPoint and activity briefs; and stakeholders ask questions for clarification and give input into the study design as well as practical aspects of how to engage members of the study population in data collection. For example, prior to a survey among HIV-positive orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) in Zambia [
15], RAC members proposed to the investigators that community-based counselors, supporting the OVC, be oriented to the study so that they can educate and counsel the OVC and their caregivers, about the study, before data collectors approached the homes. Using the above approach, SOAR study teams have successfully engaged stakeholders on an ongoing basis from the inception of studies onwards.