The Research Design Service East Midlands (RDS EM) will give you advice on research design and support you in developing your application for funding. We can help in all aspects of research design, including: focusing ideas and refining research questions; methodological advice; building a research team; effective bid writing; and, involving patients and carers in research.

How does this work?

A designated Advice Co-ordinator will work with you to identify how RDS EM can help you. A multi-disciplinary RDS EM team will then be put together to support you as you develop your research ideas and funding applications. Support may be one-off or on-going over a period of time as you develop your funding application.

How else can we help you?

We continue to offer a range of research training sessions, but these have also been adapted to reflect a stronger research design focus. Funding workshops will highlight eligibility criteria and the application process; whilst training will consider topics such as quantitative and qualitative methodologies, patient and public involvement, literature searching, and refining research questions to ensure that research design is of the highest quality.

What should you do next?

If you have any questions, or indeed a research proposal that you would like to discuss, we can be contacted on 0116 252 3276 (Leicester) or 0115 924 9924 ext 70715 (Nottingham).

For Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland enquiries please email us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and for Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire enquires, please email us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For further information please visit our website

For our latest training programmes, please click here and look in RDS Events.