Proposal for a British neurosurgical trainee research collaborative

High quality research in all surgical specialties is essential for improving patient care and outcome; neurosurgery is not an exception. Trainee collaborative networks have recently attracted considerable interest as they have a number of advantages for trainees and clinical research studies. We believe that neurosurgery represents a unique opportunity for the development of a similar nation-wide trainee research collaborative network. Our view is that this model will produce a sizeable cohort of registrars and consultants who will be actively engaged with collaborative multi-centre research studies, even though they will not necessarily be ‘academic’ neurosurgeons in the strict sense. In turn, this will help to ensure improved care and outcomes for our patients.