RACP Trainee Research Awards
Applications closed 31 August 2022
All Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand trainees are invited to submit abstracts for oral presentation for the 2022 RACP Trainee Research Awards at regional events being held in Australian States and Territories and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Trainees who take out top honours at their regional events will be invited to present alongside recognised researchers at the RACP Congress in 2023. Regional top honour trainees will also be invited to have their abstracts published in the Congress supplement of the Internal Medicine Journal or Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Eligibility
You must be:
- an RACP trainee* actively training in any of the College Divisions, Faculties or Chapters, or
- a New Fellow actively undertaking Post-Fellowship training with the RACP, provided you have been admitted to Fellowship within the last 2 years.
Overseas Trained Physicians undertaking RACP training are ineligible to apply.
In your application, select the category that best aligns with your topic. For example, you're an Adult Medicine trainee but your topic best aligns with paediatric medicine, then you should apply for the Paediatric Medicine category.
*We acknowledge that when RACP Congress is held in the following year, an Award nominee may have become a Fellow.
Prize
Trainees selected at each Australian regional and Aotearoa NZ event receive the opportunity to present alongside recognised researchers at the RACP Congress.
To enable selected Trainees to present at Congress, they'll receive:
- complimentary RACP Congress registration
- return economy airfares to RACP Congress from the closest capital city in the region they're representing
- accommodation
- official acknowledgement and a certificate
Award recipients will be invited to publish their abstracts in the Internal Medicine Journal or Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health RACP Congress supplement.
Regional Presentations
Regional events will be held between October and December 2022.
Visit the event pages below for more information and to register, or contact your regional office for further details.
| Region |
Adult |
Paediatric |
| Vic |
Wednesday 12 October 2022, 7:00pm AEST |
| AoNZ |
Tuesday 18 October 2022, 11:55am NZDT at RACP Wellington – 99 The Terrace
AoNZ_Adult_Chapters@racp.org.nz |
1 to 4 November 2022, as part of the Paediatric Society of NZ 73rd ASM 2022
AoNZ_Paeds_Child_Health@racp.org.nz |
| SA |
Tuesday 8 November 2022, 7:30pm ACDT |
| Tas |
Friday 11 November 2022, as part of the Annual Physicians Conference in Launceston (F2F), 4:15pm AEDT |
| Qld |
Wednesday 16 November 2022, 6:00pm AEST |
| NSW/ACT |
Wednesday 23 November 2022, 6:00pm AEDT |
| WA |
Saturday 3 December 2022, as part of WA Trainees Day at the UWA Club, timing TBC |
Selection criteria (regional events)
- You must have contributed strongly to the concept and execution of your abstract and presentation, with preference given to primary authors.
- Presentations are assessed on:
- content — originality, significance and importance
- presentation — clarity of verbal communication, use of visual aids
- how well they contribute to the discussion
- Works or projects included in the submission that are unpublished or have been published within 12 months before submission will be considered.
Presenting advice
Presenting is an intimidating but invaluable aspect of research. For trainees presenting their work or considering submitting their work in the future, previous adjudicators have provided their reflections that may assist you in communicating your research findings effectively.
Bolster your conclusion
While every clinical study needs a primary outcome, it's valuable to see an attempt at looking at this in another way. It can be tempting to associate cause and effect but also easy for consumers of research to discount associations as meaningless. However, appropriate use of statistical methods like a multivariate logistic regression can strengthen audience confidence in the presented conclusion.
Understand your stats
Much clinical research nowadays is conducted with a statistician as part of the team. As statistical methods increase in complexity, it can be difficult for trainees without formal statistics training to convey the statistical methods of their presented research. As the presenter of the work, it's essential that you at least understands why the employed statistical methods were selected over others and attempt to present the statistical analysis in a conventional manner rather than having to fall back on describing consultation with a statistician.
Describe the relevance
The purpose of clinical research is to improve the quality of medical care in terms of effectiveness, access or cost. Understanding the ‘point’ of a research project is what audiences are trying to do in any research presentation. Making this easy for them improves the quality of a presentation. If clinical research has resulted in a change in practice or has made a difference in lives of people, it should be described in the abstract.
Basic science research may not have a clear link back to patient benefit, which makes it even more important to describe its relevance. This can take the form of suggesting the type of clinical research that should now be undertaken as a result of the benchtop work or what benefits patients may expect from continued work along the line of inquiry.
Explain your role
Research in the 21st century is a team sport and most clinician-researchers generally fall on the modest side of the personality spectrum. When presenting an abstract, particularly in a forum such as the Trainee Research Awards, describing your role personalises the work and makes it much easier for your audience to engage with you and your work.
Selection process
- The selection panel assesses all abstracts to ensure they meet the required standard to fulfill the selection criteria.
- Selected applicants will be invited to give an oral presentation of their abstract at their regional event.
- Each presenter is allocated 10 minutes maximum for their presentation and 2 minutes for questions and answers.
- A judging panel can select up to 2 trainees in each region — 1 trainee per category (adult medicine or paediatric medicine).
- The judging panel reserves the right not to select a representative from their region if no submissions presented meet an acceptably high standard.
Contact
If you have any enquiries about award eligibility and application requirements, contact RACP Foundation.
For enquiries about regional presentations, contact your local RACP office.