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Training in Research Ethics
PEAK is the country's largest provider of training in Research Ethics. Our training draws on our experience of teaching postgraduate courses in Medical Ethics and other areas of Professional Ethics for more than 20 years.
Since 2002 we have run training courses for (nearly!) every OREC area in England, as well as Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. More recently we have provided training to over 60 universities in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
We have received excellent feedback about both the course content and the trainers' expertise in their subject area. Many of our clients regularly invite us back to run follow-on courses or to train new cohorts of committee members.
If you do not know anyone who is familiar with our training and would like to speak to one of our clients, please contact us and we will be happy to try to put you in touch with someone.
Our training sessions are conducted by staff whose research interests cover a wide range of subjects including: research ethics, the ethics of biotechnology; commercial exploitation of the human body; the concept of eugenics; public health ethics; ethics and children; ethics and mental health; ethics and addiction; ethics of intellectual property; ethics of risk; and the ethics of resource allocation.
All of our training courses use a lively and interactive 'seminar' style, rather than the more usual 'lecture' style. We make extensive use of case studies and small and large group discussions, encouraging participation from all delegates whenever possible. The discussion surrounding these case studies gives committee members practice at working together in a relaxed setting, where both new and experienced committee members can contribute to the learning environment by applying new theory and discussing a broad range of ethical issues. Our training style has been developed over two decades of running MA courses in ethics for healthcare and medical professionals, and has proved to be very popular indeed. Extensive handouts are supplied to accompany each session, which not only summarise the content, but also contain suggestions for further reading and discussion. For further information about how we run our courses and our charges please see: In House Training.
We run courses here at Keele several times a year for both University and NHS research ethics committees. However, the vast majority of our training is run in-house. Not only is this more convenient for those attending; it also offers very good value for money. We estimate that if there are more than ten people requiring training, it is very likely to be cheaper for us to come to you than to send all ten to a training course at Keele or elsewhere.
We can also offer guidance on obtaining non-clinical CPD points for in-house training events.
We can, by special arrangement, tailor the programme to meet your committee members' particular needs or interests. For example, we have run a course on Ethical Issues in Qualitative and in Student Research, and a similar course focusing wholly on qualitative research, as a special event for committees whose members who have particular concerns about ethical oversight of these kinds of research. For further information including costs of tailored training provision please contact us.
We also run an online distance learning Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma/MA course in Research Ethics.This is the most relevant academic course in the UK for members of research ethics committees.
We are extremely proud of our reputation as a provider of quality training for ethics committees and practitioners and hope that we can work with you in the future.
Details of our available in-house training courses are available via the links below:
