Staff Correspondent 

Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh, Prof  Dr. S.M.A. Faiz, has urged all university teachers and researchers in the country to ensure the proper use of the research repository developed on Social and Behaviour Change (SBC). He made this call while speaking as the chief guest at the SBC Research Repository Sharing Program. The awareness session was held on Thursday  afternoon at the UGC. UGC members Professor Dr. Tanzimuddin Khan and Professor Dr. Mashuma Habib were present as special guests.Panel discussants at the event included Prof  Dr. Zahidul Islam, Vice Chancellor of Dhaka International University; Prof Dr. A. K. Firoz Ahmed, retired faculty member of the Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka; and Prof Dr. Shafiun Nahin Shimul from the Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka. UGC Secretary Dr. Fakhrul Islam also spoke at the event.Professor Faiz praised the development of the research repository on social behaviour change, describing it as a commendable initiative. He noted that this platform would allow relevant researchers to easily collect necessary data. Referring to the "July Uprising" as the most prominent example of social behaviour change, he remarked that it led to the country’s current freedom. Highlighting the anxiety and intense psychological pressure among the students who participated in the July Movement, he called for collective efforts to address these issues.The SBC Research Repository was created to bring together research data on social and behavioural change from across the country onto a unified platform. It contains information from 150 studies conducted over the past five years. Through this platform, researchers will be able to quickly and easily access SBC-related research data and receive guidance for conducting new studies in the future.This research repository has been developed under the project titled “Conducting Research on Social and Behavioural Change (SBC) and Enhancing the Capacity of University Teachers,” jointly initiated by UGC and UNICEF. The repository was developed with the assistance of university teachers.The session was moderated by  Acting Director of UGC’s International Collaboration Division, Ms. Jesmin Parvin. Directors and additional directors of UGC, teachers, researchers, registrars from 12 public and private universities, and representatives from UNICEF attended the event. Associate Prof  Dr. Touhid Hossain Khan from the Department of Sociology at Jagannath University presented various aspects of the SBC Research Repository.