Research Ready: a student-initiated workshop model for developing foundational research skills

Travel restrictions, pandemics, economic downturn, and increasing costs in organizing workshops all impact on face-to-face training of undergraduates planning to undertake research. The inability to obtain basic, first-hand information regarding research in practice causes undue stress for students and leads to unrealistic expectations regarding research projects. Here, we describe how a student initiated online workshop, co-designed by a group of undergraduate leaders in conjunction with a panel of international academic researchers, and enabled the delivery of an introductory workshop on research training to meet student needs. Post-workshop, over 80%-95% of the participants rated their understanding of different aspects of research in practice as either being good or excellent. The design of this workshop provides an innovative template, in particular for resource-restricted countries, on how student-initiated workshops with multi-institutional academic collaboration could enhance training in research practice.