[Criteria for establishing priorities for research in health].

The author discusses the background for the idea of framing explicit policies on science and technology in the countries. She refers to the work of PAHO's Advisory Committee on Research (formerly Advisory Committee on Medical Research) and to statements made by governments on different occasions to the effect that the countries should establish their own research infrastructure. She mentions the basic elements and components of a national policy on science and technology, enunciates the principles that contribute to the establishment of a set of objectives, and states a number of premises that ensure the attainment of those objectives. She ends with some general observations on the criteria for the setting of priorities in health research.