One of the programs at the institute these days is training on conducting social surveys. Ten officials - from Trasigang and Tsirang forests division; and the institute are attending five days of training on the subject. The training is being conducted with the objective to introduce various data generation techniques in social science: questionnaire survey; semi-structured interview; in-depth interview; and focus group discussion.

One of the most important topics that are being discussed in the training is on designing a good questions for questionnaire surveys and the art of asking questions. The art of asking questions for both questionnaire surveys and semi-structured and in-depth interviews are being discussed besides covering topics on the importance of ethics and conducting research ethically. The final days of the training will be focussed on data entry; coding of interview answers and basic descriptive and inferential analysis of the data.

The training is being funded by the Jigme Singye Wangchuck Endowment Fund maintained at the institute.