The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, offers a Short Course in Research Design in Qualitative Social Inquiry to interested health professionals working in the public and community sectors in Australia and from abroad. The Short Course focuses on the principles and practices of designing social and behavioural research, particularly using qualitative methodology.

The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University, Melbourne, has a world-class reputation for social research on sexual health, STDs and HIV/AIDS.

The Short Course recognises the need for applied research by public sector and community sector agencies, and calls on the extensive experience of the Centre in the conduct of social and behavioural research. Agencies in the public and community sectors are needing to exert more research effort in support of programs and in understanding whether program objectives are being met. Research to meet these needs is now often commissioned or 'contracted-out'. As a consequence, developing research proposals and undertaking research proposal assessment is becoming an important aspect of many agencies' activities.

Research has become particularly important in the fields of health promotion and in policy formation, evaluation and outcomes measurement. The recent demand for social and behavioural research in HIV/AIDS has stimulated an increasing amount of research on sexuality and sexual health, and this research has led to developments in research design and
methodology, which in turn is being called upon by researchers in allied fields.

Much of the research knowledge and expertise in public and community agencies has been developed through staff attending courses in research methodology as part of professional training. These courses only rarely address the foundational and preliminary stages of the research process - the steps in project design. With the increasing importance of research in the public and community sectors, it is important to receive training not just in how to do research (eg. designing a survey; conducting an interview) but also in applying principles of good design in research. This can mean that research projects are better geared to the needs of organisations and their clientele. It is also important to understand the principles of research design in developing objective criteria against which proposals can be assessed.

Issues of research design included in the Short Course are:selecting a research topic by identifying a general social problem, issue or concern and refining it into a specific topic or focus;developing and clarifying such issues as:

• specific research aims and purposes
• populations, samples, or target group(s) to be involved in the research
• audience(s) for the research
• resources required for the research, including potential collaborators
• research outcomes and applications
• research project planning and management
• dissemination of findings

The Short Course builds upon the emphasis on research design by covering
the following:

• Capacities and objectives of social and behavioural research
  how research helps program development;
• Strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative methodologies
  when to use which one, or using both;
• Applied social research in sexual health and related fields
  including HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and STDs;
• The relationship between difficult health problems and do-able research
  projects
  how to make research effective;
• Research questions
  what do we want to know and how can we find out;
• Methodology and its methods
  including the ongoing emergence of new methods and approaches;
• Uses of the literature
  when, where and how to refer to published material;
• Research ethics
  what is ethical research and how to ensure it;
• Practical research management
  including data management;
• Dissemination of findings
  how to reach different audiences and use different modes of delivery;
• Collaboration with affected communities
  how to establish and maintain working relationships with communities.

Morning sessions are devoted to presentations, with input from staff and specialists. Afternoons are devoted to workshops where participants are expected to design potential projects of their own, suitable to their organisations and clientele. At the conclusion of the Short Course, participants can aim to have a practical research proposal developed to the point where it can be taken back to agencies to be considered for implementation.

Teaching is at a postgraduate level, and participants who will benefit from this course are likely to have a degree in a related field or experience in working in the public and community sectors in commissioning, designing, assessing, evaluating, or using social and behavioural research in their day-to-day work, as either health policy developers, health promotion experts or educators.

No formal training in research methods as such is required, but an interest in, and an understanding of, social research will be important.