PurposeThe Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance Family Medicine Specialty Training Program (FMSTP) is a fully accredited medical residency program in Lesotho that requires all trainees, or registrars, to complete a research project to graduate. Most registrars, however, have no prior research experience and no in-country peers exist with whom they can collaborate. We seek to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a peer research partnership program that pairs FMSTP registrars with US post-graduate trainees from Boston University (BU) and other US programs, and evaluate the impact of the program across multiple domains. MethodsAll FMSTP registrars (8 individuals) are paired with a US peer research partner who, together with a BU faculty mentor, provide training on research skills and project feedback over a 2-year period. To assess the program, registrars complete research self-evaluations at four intervals. Additionally, all registrars, faculty, staff and peer research partners (17 individuals) complete anonymous program evaluations at the same intervals. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze registrars’ self-reported confidence in seven research skill domains over time and a rolling thematic analysis is used to evaluate written open-ended evaluations of the program. Results Baseline evaluations revealed low registrar research confidence across all domains (average 1.75 on a scale of 1.0 - 5.0). Our first follow-up evaluation, with a 100% response rate, demonstrated modest improvements in overall confidence (2.23), with specific gains in "defining a research question" and "conducting a literature review," areas that had been covered by the program. Feedback has been overall positive; faculty describe the program as "excellent for skills transfer." Registrars feel comfortable, noting there is "no pressure to impress the peer mentor." The importance of good communication, such as "timely feedback" was highlighted.Conclusions Our initial findings indicate that this international peer research partnership program is both feasible and mutually beneficial for participants. Our rolling program evaluation has resulted in real-time program improvements, such as exploring avenues for medical student involvement. We expect to demonstrate the acceptability of a unique model for US trainee engagement in global health research that prioritizes supporting research capacity building amongst family medicine trainees in low- and middle-income countries.