About us  

Pain Centre Versus Arthritis pursues international excellence in multidisciplinary musculoskeletal research across the translational pathway. We aim to enhance our understanding of pain and arthritis with the goal of improving the treatment and lives of people with these conditions.

The Pain Centre Versus Arthritis provides continuous training for researchers at all stages of their career. This training aims to facilitate our researchers’ goal of achieving international excellence in multidisciplinary musculoskeletal research across the translational pathway.  Our training aims to provide our researchers with the skills needed to increase fundamental knowledge, increase research impact in musculoskeletal health and wellbeing and improve patient benefit.

The PhD training we provide

We provide PhD training for clinical and non-clinical scientists across a wide range of research themes in collaboration with the Musculoskeletal theme of the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre and the University of Nottingham Doctoral Training Programmes.  Our MSK and pain research training is tailored for the specific programmes of research undertaken, combining study design and technological innovation, knowledge and understanding.  Previous and current PhD students have undertaken projects which enhance our understanding of pain and arthritis. 

Key components:

• Our students greatly benefit from presenting their research to a varied internal audience ahead of external opportunities at national and international conferences. 
• We provide our students with the skills needed to facilitate publication of their findings in peer-reviewed journals. 
• Our PhD students can access University of Nottingham PhD training opportunities in transferable skills, delivered via the Schools of Medicine, Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Psychology, and our Doctoral Training Programmes.
• Our goal is to ensure that we provide PhD students with the appropriate skillset to address their research questions, and to provide the research community with a pipeline of graduates excited and able to address future pain research challenges.
• Our training is delivered via a combination of internal and external research seminar programmes, bespoke technical training and small group support for the development of research ideas and the embedding of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in research design.  

Internal and external research seminar programmes

We provide a broad range of topics via our research seminar programmes, which include internal programmes made up of short seminars and research update presentations by members of the Centre.  These informal meetings provide an opportunity for researchers at all career stages to develop their presentation style and confidence.  These meetings are attended by our Investigators, who provide feedback both on the study design and interpretation of findings in a supportive and constructive manner.  We also host external meetings each year. These include invited external speakers and a small number of internal speakers to provide a half-day session on a distinct topic.

We fully recognise the importance of making these meetings inclusive and welcoming to all our members and we aim to provide a supportive environment.  Investigators and junior colleagues present at these meetings, providing everyone with exposure to a wide range of presentation styles. We encourage junior colleagues to have the confidence to ask questions, which aids their development for when attending external meetings.  Our meetings provide an opportunity for discussion over refreshments, and we encourage interactions between all our non-clinical and clinical researchers at all stages of their careers.  Our research meetings help our researchers to develop their research knowledge and network of collaborators, planting the seeds of new research ideas and experimental approaches to help them fulfil their research ambition.