This five-year project builds on CMB’s earlier grant (#12-101) to build research capacity of young faculty in 3-4 selected Chinese medical universities in western China. The grant purpose was to provide support for PhD training of the Chinese, enhance local relevance of the training, reduce costs, and promote Asian collaboration. Under this supplemental grant, CMB will support PhD training of six faculty members in epidemiology of rural health policy and systems. At a cost of $37,000 per student (to be supplemented by external funding), the sandwich program have the first year of courses in Thailand followed by a second year for data collection in China and a final year for analysis and thesis writing in Thailand.