In response to CMB's RFP, three medical schools of Qinghai, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia submitted projects focusing on overcoming the barriers of smoother integration of township-village health services (TVI). CMB responded by requesting the three provincial schools to develop a joint proposal. TVI aims to improve rural health services through integration of organizational structure, managerial systems, personnel policies, staff training, drug and technology distribution, and financing arrangement between township and village clinics.This proposal for $951,200 over three years would support action research on barriers and challenges for integrating rural health services in the western areas of China.Conducted by these three lead provincial medical universities, technical participation will be provided by Huazong University of Science and Technology (Tongji) and Nanjing Medical University. The consolidated project includes literature review, mapping of village-township health services linkages, pilot testing of improved linkages, and evaluating the pilot experiments.