EDUCATION COMMITTEE
One of the most important strategic directions identified by N2 is to equip researchers with the necessary tools and programs to conduct high quality investigations with integrity, efficiency and continuous quality improvement.
Committee Co-Chairs
The N2 Education Committee has taken on the task of creating a curriculum of online courses of interest to anyone who funds, administers, reviews, coordinates or conducts health research and/or social and behavioural research.
In 2010 N2 partnered with the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI), a not-for-profit entity at the University of Miami, which has since become part of the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York (BRANY). CITI is one of the leading providers of online research education for academic and research communities around the world. This partnership is allowing the N2 Education Committee to establish a source of high quality, web-based, Canadian instruction on a variety of topics that encourage research with human participants to be conducted in a manner that is appropriate, safe, responsible, ethical and meets the criteria offered by guidelines, regulations and legislation in this country.
CITI-Canada is constantly in the process of updating course content as changes occur in the research landscape of Canada and the rest of the world. It is also expanding its slate of courses every year as the demand for this sort of made-in-Canada education grows.
We are even looking at expanding other types of education to augment the online program, for example, webinars and regional meetings. The Committee also produces a news bulletin with “headlines” and links to articles or announcements which keeps members informed of changes or developments in guidance, legislation, regulations and news in general that could impact course content.
The N2 Education Committee is currently composed of approximately 30 to 35 volunteer members (plus one administrative assistant) who sit on one or more Working Groups (WGs), responsible for developing and maintaining content of the courses we offer. There is a WG for every N2 Education Committee project that is either developed (e.g., Good Clinical Practice, Social & Behavioural Research Ethics, Division Five: Drugs for Clinical Trials Involving Humans, Privacy), under development (e.g., Clinical Research Coordinators) or being considered (e.g., What is Research?). We are, however, always interested in ideas for new projects as well as new members to help us keep up with the demand for high-quality, Canadian education in all types of research involving humans.
For more information about the CITI-Canada program click here.