Photo (l-r) Professor Peter Cantillon, Dr Deirdre Bennett, Ms Caroline Spillane

Background

The development of medical education research in Ireland is a shared objective of the Medical Council and INMED. Research and scholarly activity in medical education in Ireland have been constrained by a lack of funding to support research of significant size or scope. The recent HRB-Medical Education Research Grant award, jointly funded by the Medical Council and HSE-MET has addressed this deficit at the level of large scale research. The INMED travel bursary and small research grant award, launched in 2014, have provided small scale funding in support of medical education research.

The Medical Council and INMED have now agreed to jointly fund three middlescale awards of €6000 each, covering research along the continuum of medical education.

Objective

The grants are intended to support building medical educational research capacity in the Ireland, whilst answering questions of national and international importance and contributing to the to the knowledge-base for medical education and training in Ireland. Scope: Application is open to Principal Investigators from the Republic of Ireland only. However, the opportunity for applications to link within and across jurisdictions is recognised and welcomed.

There will be one award of €6000 for projects linked to each of the following phases of training. Projects which address more than one phase of training will also be considered.

  • Undergraduate Medical Education
  • Postgraduate Medical Education and Training
  • Life Long Learning / Continuous Professional Development

To guide applicants, a number of indicative themes are provided:

  • Medical Professionalism
  • Inter-professional Learning
  • Workplace Learning
  • Professional Identity Formation
  • Resilience and well- being in students and the workforce
  • Transitions in medical education
  • Feedback
  • Impactful and creative models for CPD

Applications which focus on an area outside of the thematic areas outlined above will be considered eligible where the applicant presents a compelling and justifiable case for how the project possesses strong potential to impact on policy and/or practice in medical education and training in Ireland.

The Medical Council- INMED Research in Medical Education awards will not fund:

  • Literature reviews, curriculum developments, service evaluation, audits, surveys, need assessments or technology development (although these elements may be part of an integrated research study)
  • Implementation of an intervention without a predominant research element.

Funding:

The award will be up to a maximum total value of €6,000 inclusive of overheads for a project of a maximum of 12 months Application process The application form will be accessible from the INMED website.

Application review process and assessment criteria 

Applications will be subject to review by a panel of international medical education experts. Members of the panel will be selected based on their expertise and experience in the field of medical education and training research, and reflecting the research areas, concepts and methods outlined in the submitted proposals. Conflict of interest rules will be applied rigorously. International peer reviewers will not provide comments or scores on any application on which they have a conflict of interest.

Applications will be assessed against the following criteria

1. Evidence that the proposal is linked directly with education and professional development priorities in Ireland, including those identified by the Medical Council

2. Clarity of the aims and objectives of the proposed research

3. Coherence between research objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes or benefits.

4. Demonstrable benefits for undergraduate students, doctors in training or doctors engaged in continuing education

5. Evidence of a clear evaluation and dissemination strategy. Evaluations should include “process” as well as “outcomes”

6. Evidence of appropriate and robust research governance.

7. Evidence that the proposal is for research purposes and the generation of new knowledge in a particular field.

Timeline

February 21st 2015: Call for 2015 opens

May 29th 2015: Deadline for submission of applications for 2015

July 3rd 2015: Announcement of awards

September 2015: Call for 2016 opens

December 2015: Deadline for submission of applications for 2016

February 2016: Projects funded 2015 – progress report at INMED ASM

February 2017: Projects funded 2016 – final project presentations at INMED ASM