Faculty of Health

The development of a national infrastructure for stroke research with 8 local stroke research networks in England and similar structures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has led to a significant increase in stroke research in the UK, and the appointment of a large number of dedicated stroke research staff with a professional background in nursing, therapies, and psychology, as well as local principal investigators with medical qualifications and an interest in stroke, neurology, medicine, or geriatric medicine. The role of the network is to increase enrolment of patients into high quality clinical studies. However, many of the staff working for the networks are interested to go beyond this and develop their own research ideas. This course will give students the knowledge and skills to do this.

Research has led to great improvement in stroke care over the last decade. Through the infrastructure of stroke research networks more patients and staff are actively involved in the delivery of stroke research. This module has been designed to build on this experience of research and to enable participants to mover form delivering research to developing their own ideas into research projects. The development of an idea into a research protocol, user involvement, networking with professional bodies and other service providers, and becoming familiar with the grant application process will be covered. Students will meet experienced researchers, undertake private study and also receive feedback in small groups about their research ideas from peers and the module leader.

To develop the knowledge and skills necessary for students to understand stroke research and to develop their own research project.

Undergraduate or equivalent professional qualification in a healthcare related discipline. Personal experience of stroke research either as a professional or a stroke patient and carer, a research idea, and willingness to develop this into a research protocol or contribute to stroke research development as a user representative. Completion of the M Med
Sci Research Methods module prior to starting the stroke module is recommended for participants with limited prior experience in research who plan to conduct their own research.

The module will cover the basic knowledge and concepts relevant to an understanding and conduct of clinical research in the area of stroke. It will enable students to make
links with the Stroke Network, address how to formulate a research question, how to carry out a literature review, issues of GCP/data protection, research ethics, user
involvement in research, how to formulate a research protocol and achieve funding. It will not cover the basics of research methodology, research design or statistics.

Activities will include: lectures covering key aspects of stroke research, self directed learning, on-line activities, workshops on the development of a research protocol,
small group work and presentations, discussions of research plans, and the completion of a grant application including a critical appraisal of the relevant scientific
literature and the research protocol developed in the course.

1. Verbal presentation of an outline of the proposed research project supported by a 1-2 page written summary.
2. Mock grant application using the format of a recognised grant giving body (such as NIHR Research for Patient Benefit) using a recognised format and including relevant appendices to support and justify the application.