BRDG 501/601: Research Development
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BRDG 501 – 3 credits (1 academic year) for masters students;
BRDG 601 – 6 credits (2 academic years) for doctoral students.
Time:
Location:
Course leader:
Fall and Winter 2014-2015, Wednesdays, 2:15 to 4:00 p.m.
Room 424 School of Population and Public Health, 2206 East Mall
Hugh Davies
Office:
SPPH 260A (2206 East Mall)
Telephone: (604) 822-6777
Email:
hugh.davies@ubc.ca
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We will meet once per week for up to 1.5 hours, both fall and winter terms. Additional time will
be spent outside the scheduled meeting time on grant proposal preparation.
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Connect will be used to facilitate dissemination of documents and class-related discussions. The
Connect log-in site is http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/. To log-in use your Campus-wide login
(CWL) ID and password.
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There will be input from many Bridge Program faculty. Faculty members whose research
projects are selected by the Bridge fellows will commit to significant participation in classes
and/or meetings outside class time.
OBJECTIVE:
To learn how to develop and complete fundable research applications that live up to the spirit of the
Bridge program (ie. integrated research bridging public health, engineering and policy research).
In particular, the course has 5 core objectives:
1. To provide a comprehensive learning opportunity in research development and grantwriting
2. To provide exposure to research “content” in disciplines other than students’ own
3. To provide students with experience in working as part of an interdisciplinary research
team
4. To act as a vehicle by which students could engage in interdisciplinary research
activities
5. To give students opportunities to work intensively with additional faculty members
METHOD:
1) We will solicit/come up with a number of promising research topics:
2) We will employ an initial screening process and invite up to 6 proposals for more complete
presentation and discussion.
3) A final set of proposals (2) will be selected on the basis of how best they reflect the goals of
the Bridge Program, fit the interests of students, and their promise to be fundable.
4) Teams will be formed and (with support from mentors) will work on understanding the issue
well enough to develop the complete proposal.
5) By winter break teams will have prepared a “letter of intent” summarizing the proposed
work for review by an “external” committee and identify a target agency/competition for
submitting the proposal
6) Throughout each term, there will be a number of internal reviews of the proposals and a
final “external” review at the end of the spring term.
7) And finally, the proposals are submitted to granting bodies.
New students will work in multidisciplinary teams to design research projects and write fully
developed operating grant proposals to be submitted to national, regional and/or international peerreview granting agencies. Proposals that involve research on humans will be submitted for screening
by UBC Ethical Review committees.
Students will be able to list the proposal on their curriculum vitae, and may, if the project is funded,
the timing is right and they remain interested, use parts of the projects as the basis for their thesis or
be a paid employee of the project.
A vital outcome of this course will be an on-going base of research to enhance the transformation of
public health research and to provide funding to fund future Bridge fellows.
OUTCOME:
After completion of this course, students will:
a. Understand the grant application process;
b. Know requirements of federal and regional granting agencies;
c. Be able to search and locate the core scientific literature of the component disciplines
relevant to a problem spanning at least two of the Bridge themes;
d. Be able to identify, engage and interact with appropriate faculty and others to help develop
the research plan
e. Be able to develop research hypotheses and design methods to address them;
f. Be able to develop and implement approaches to resolve practical problems typical to
interdisciplinary research projects;
g. Submit a fundable research proposal;
h. Solicit internal reviews of a grant proposal and respond appropriately to feedback;
i. Respond appropriately to feedback from granting agency reviews;
j. Understand the ethical issues surrounding research;
k. Submit an approvable application for ethical review to the UBC committee;
l. Respond appropriately to feedback from ethical review committees;
m. Provide appropriate feedback to others;
n. Be able to explain their proposed project and its social relevance in plain language.
EVALUATION: PASS/FAIL
This course is designed to provide a supportive environment in which graduate students can develop
research, grant writing skills and collaborate in developing research. In most cases, teams of
students will work on the same research grant proposal.
Evaluation will be based on assessment by faculty and on reflective assessment by the student. Once
a year, at about mid-term, there will be a one-on-one meeting with faculty to discuss the course from
the points of view of both the student and the instructor. At the end of the year, each student will
receive written feedback from the instructor about their performance.
A pass (68%) requires that the student meet the following expectations:
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On-time completion of individual class assignments (30%);
Evidence of active participation in activities leading to literature review and grant proposal
completion (30%);
Literature review and research proposal (40%).
The course schedule is available here.