EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND
STATISTICS TRAINING SCHOOL FRAME has staged another highly successful training course in Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis of Biomedical Experiments. This year’s course was held at the University of Nottingham and more than 30 people attended. Numbers were slightly down because the Icelandic volcano interrupted travel, so some overseas delegates were unable to reach the UK. The courses were first organised by the FRAME Reduction Steering Committee (FRSC) three years ago and each one has been welcomed by the delegates who attended. The University of Manchester has incorporated a version of the course into its postgraduate syllabus since hosting one on behalf of FRAME. Feedback from delegates on the latest course was overwhelmingly positive. They were asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the three day event and their comments showed a high level of satisfaction with both the conduct and the results of the course. Most said the aims and objectives of the course were clear and that it met with their expectations. They welcomed the opportunity to work on practical examples on computer and to compare experiences with others in similar fields. They felt they had learned new knowledge and practices that would help them in their work. The majority would recommend the course to colleagues. Course organiser, FRAME Scientific
Feedback from Delegates The computer session was by far the most useful and interesting, it puts the rest of the course into a practical context. Group exercises are enjoyable and were written well.
Officer Michelle Hudson, said: “It was very pleasing to find that several of the delegates would be interested in taking a second course that would help them pass on their new skills to others. We hope that these courses are a foundation for spreading Reduction skills among researchers across Europe.” FRSC is now planning further stage-one courses in other areas of the UK and hopes to extend into Europe next year. The committee is also looking into ways to set up a second-stage course to train past delegates to run courses at their own universities and laboratories.
Good planning and design can have a major impact on reducing animal usage in research programmes and on the welfare of the animals used. Experimental design text books usually offer no guidance on how to design individual experiments to reduce the number of animals needed or to minimise the severity of the procedures involved.
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Group exercises were good for interacting with other participants on the course and were useful to apply lectures to examples. Very good and helpful course. The course was useful for initiating collaborations with colleagues from different areas. It was interesting to spend time with people from different areas of scientific research. Great help to improve my teaching to research students and my own research. Excellent course, I learned a lot. This course has reinforced my existing methods, whilst reminding me of many I had forgotten. The content of the course was extremely relevant and useful to me and I will definitely recommend the course to others. I found the course helpful and it made me think about lots of different factors.
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