W2
Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Statistical Analyses
Protocol and registration, searching and screening, extraction, pooled estimates and heterogeneity, and the statistical reporting the result has to carry.
Research Skill Development Workshops
One method, learned properly, and then used.
Each workshop covers a single method in depth. None of them is passed by attendance: a workshop closes when the participant has defined a research project, carried it out under supervision, and brought it to material ready for publication.
The catalogue
The skills a member can take up.
A member chooses one of these as the Phase 2 skill of their individual pathway. The taught course runs alongside the supervision.
W3
Immunological Training
Core immunological methods and the reasoning behind them: what each assay can establish, what it cannot, and how immunological evidence is read.
W4
Genetics Training
Genetic and genomic analysis: study design, variant interpretation, and the reporting standards that make a genetic finding usable by others.
W5
Foundational Structural Biology
How macromolecular structure is determined and what a structure does and does not tell you about function.
W6
Computational Structural Biology
Structure prediction, docking and molecular modelling, with attention to how confidence is assessed and reported.
W7
Machine Learning
Machine learning applied to biological data: framing the question, validation that holds up, and the failure modes that make a model look better than it is.
Before these
The foundation comes first.
Foundational Training (W1a, narrative review synthesis, and W1b, grant writing) is the prerequisite for these workshops, and Research Integrity and Publication Ethics (W0) is taken alongside it. A researcher who already works at this level may apply for a waiver of the foundation; the skill workshops themselves cannot be waived, because they are passed by finishing their project.
What a pass leads to
Completed skills carry weight.
A member who completes a workshop and brings the project to a submittable standard under one-to-one supervision advances in the progression system, and may be asked to take on a more senior part in the Centre's work, such as managing a research track or mentoring others through the same workshop.
Completing three of these programmes, or two together with a third skill demonstrated through interview and assessment, opens eligibility for advisory membership. How that is assessed is set out in the Centre's governance.