The Faculty of Medicine Medical Education Research Unit (MERU) launches its 2018 programme of events today, and all are invited to the launch event this evening to find out more about MERU’s work and to network with current members.
Now entering its fourth year, MERU conducts and supports innovative educational research activity to evaluate and enhance Imperial’s teaching and curriculum.
It aims to build a community, including both staff and students, uniting them through an interest in medical education research. Made up of a multidisciplinary group of staff from Imperial, its NHS partners and sister unit at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore, the Unit also recruits and encourages interested students to become involved in existing research projects and to consider conducting their own research.
The Unit also supports members by offering financial support to those attending medical education conferences, and advises on ways to develop research questions into feasible studies that yield publishable data, as well as guidance on ethics applications.
Over the past three years, MERU has funded more than a dozen original research projects, made 64 travel awards allowing members to attend conferences, and delivered monthly meetings and workshops to small groups of interested staff. The Unit also offers one-to-one support to any members requiring it, and brings together those with similar research interests to allow them to assist and advise one another in their various projects.
MERU Director, Professor Sue Smith, says, “I am looking forward to kicking off our new MERU year today, and I am proud of our unique offering to the Imperial medical education research community.”
‘We are always keen to welcome new members and to expand the scope of our projects and reach, so we encourage anyone with even the smallest idea for a research project to get in touch with us to see how MERU can offer support.’
Members’ research has been published in national and international healthcare and education journals, as well as presented at international conferences, and a variety will be showcased at the fourth Annual MERU Conference to be held here at Imperial in September.
If you’d like to meet the team or find out more information about MERU and how it can help you, you are warmly invited to join the event this evening (Wednesday 24 January) at 17.30, in Room 119 of the Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington campus. Alternatively, you can find out more information and sign-up for updates on the new-look MERU webpages.