This 1 day online course will be held live with a mix of lectures and interactive practical sessions based on real life examples and challenges.

By the end of the course participants will have acquired: 

1. an understanding of why protocols are important and the information that should be included;
2. knowledge of the requirements for a range of health research protocols, an understanding of who should be involved and when, and the expectations of external stakeholders; 
3. knowledge of relevant external guidance, checklists and templates; and
4. an appreciation of the challenges of writing protocols in real life scenarios. 

This is an introductory course aimed at those who are new to writing protocols for health research projects, including health and social care professionals, post-graduate researchers and clinical trials staff.

This course will cover: 

1. what is a protocol, why is it important and what information should be included? 
2. who should be involved and when, and what are the expectations of external stakeholders? 
3. what are the key considerations and potential challenges of writing a protocol? 
4. what guidance should be followed, and where can you get help and advice? 

This course is led by Dr Lucy Culliford and Dr Jo Worthington from the Bristol Trials Centre. 

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

We do not charge fees for pilot courses, nor do they count against your allocation of free course places. However, in return we ask that you take the time to provide full and thorough feedback so we can effectively evaluate the success of the course.

Pilot courses are extremely popular and all live sessions must be attended in full. You should only book onto this course if you are able to commit to attending in full and have time to provide detailed feedback. Attendance is monitored. Failure to attend in full, without a valid reason, will result in your access to pilot course materials being rescinded and you will not be permitted to attend any further pilot courses within the same academic year.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full How to pay your short course fees..

For help and support with booking a course refer to our contact us, here or feel free to booking information page directly. For available payment options please see: FAQs

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

Please note that this is a pilot course and therefore no Materials & Recordings (UoB only) option is available.