Course Repertoire

The program has four basic requirements: two courses, a Journal club or a discussion forum and the final report that will be a transdiciplinary analysis of the research project.

Mandatory courses

1 - Responsible Conduct of Research

Goal
Provide students with the appropriate tools to be able to carry out responsible research in their domain.
At the end of this course, each student should be able to:

• Carry out an experiment involving human subjects within the established ethics guidelines, conduct codes and laws

• Act with integrity; respect intellectual property

• Question the potential benefits of certain research and medical practices

2 - Transdisciplinary Aspects of Reproductive Health Research

Goal
Expose students to the concept of transdisciplinarity in reproductive health research and to allow them to initiate a transdisciplinary analysis of their own research project.

In the context of this course, students will be:

• Exposed to illustrations of the transdisciplinary dimensions of seemingly unidimensional biological or behaviour research questions in reproductive health.

• Involved in roundtable discussion with biological, behavioural, and social scientists who work in reproductive health and who will share information on their disciplinary approaches and research tools.

• Assigned to undertake a transdisciplinary analysis of their own research problem and to identify its trandsiciplinary aspects.

The content of the course will be offered in a workshop each two years.

3 - Journal Club and Monthly News Forum

Students will be required to participate in one or the other activity during their training.

Goal
Implement in a practical way the transdisciplinary approach.

Journal Club
For each question, a range of scientific perspectives (biomedical, population health, health policy, ethics and law, social, environmental, nutrition, other) will be considered, starting from the material provided in a selected article or document and expanding consideration of the focal research question with a transdisciplinary analysis of its multiple relevant dimensions.
This will be achieved by the judicious choice of articles for discussion and by the input of mentors from diverse disciplines.

Monthly “News Forum”

Goal

To implement in a practical way the knowledge transfer approach.

Student-mentor dyads provide commentary for e-publication on selected high impact scientific articles. STIRRHS students, mentors, health care providers and decision makers comment the posting.

4 - Transdisciplinary analysis of the research project

After students have successfully passed steps 1, 2 and 3, they must conduct a transdisciplinary analysis of their research project.

The online seminar will allow the students to present their project and to interact with other students and mentors. They will question and challenge the student with the goal of deepening the analysis. This seminar leads to the writing of their final report.

Upon fulfillment of these requirements, STIRRHS will award a certificate confirming the successful completion of the transdisciplinary program.

5 - Annual Workshop

Each year, trainees should participate in an educational workshop. Planned workshops are: courses on Transdisciplinarity, Knowledge Transfer, Grant Writing Skills, Leadership and Dissemination of Research Funding.

Optional Courses

1 - Critical Appraisal of the Medical Literature in Reproduction Health Sciences

This course serves as an introductory module of clinical epidemiology.

2 - Course on institutional animal user training

This course is required by all students whose project requires research on animals.

This course developed by the Canadian Council of Animal Care has the purpose to foster a philosophy of compassion and respect for the animals used in research, teaching and testing. Secondly, it should provide participants with the necessary knowledge base and technical skills to carry out required procedures, and to promote quality science based on appropriate use of animals by skilled individuals.

3 - Health Technology Assessment

This course developed by the Agency of Health Services and Technology Assessment (AETMIS) will provide an overview of the field of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), an introduction to methods used in assessing health technologies, and material on implementing HTA in health decision-making.