Postgraduate News and Views: Ethics of training, Managing Environmental Change

Concerns about the quantity and quality of training has prompted the University of Edinburgh – along with the Wellcome Trust, the NHS in Scotland and the Chief Scientist Office – to set up a programme to nurture the next generation of clinical researchers.

Covering areas such as ethics, how to design a research programme, statistics and epidemiology, how to use databases, how to get grants and funding, and how to write up work and present it, it will take researchers from the initial idea through to the scientific paper, says Professor David Webb, the programme director: "Although there is a lot of good work going in clinical research training in Scotland and the UK, there's also a lot of duplication. Yet, there's an enormous need for quality clinical research for bringing forward new developments in medicine. If you do research badly you don't get the clear answers you need; for the safety of patients you need results that are robust."

The programme will involve a series of practical workshops for nurses, doctors and others involved in clinical research.

¿ Plenty of postgraduate courses look at the extent and impact of environmental change but few address how to tackle it, says Professor Alan Werrity, head of the geography department at the University of Dundee. Dundee, in collaboration with the University of St Andrews, is aiming to fill the gap with a new MSc in Managing Environmental Change, starting in September.

"We have tried to take the science behind environmental change and place it alongside training in things like environmental law, management and entrepreneurship, so graduates have a secure understanding of the issues and the skills to address some of these problems," says Werrity.

The universities were assisted by a forum of potential employers, including oil companies, regulatory bodies, local authorities, and environmental consultants, who suggested what they would like to see in graduates. "The basic feedback was that they needed more than just a science base," says Werrity. "They need to be aware of the broader issues in environmental policy."

The course modules will examine environmental change over the past 10,000 years, including particular areas of environmental risk, such as flooding and coastal erosion and water quality. Other areas include environmental management and policy, environmental law in the UK and Brussels, and skills in areas such as geographic information systems and remote sensoring equipment. Teamwork will also be emphasised.

The last third of the course will be taken up with an industrial placement.

emma@haughton.net