Bestselling author of "Bad Science" Dr Ben Goldacre to speak at 3U Partnership public lecture in RCSI

Dr Ben Goldacre will unpick dodgy scientific claims, missing research results and badly designed clinical trials in his public lecture for 3U Partnership entitled "Bad Trials" taking place at 4:30pm today in RCSI. Dr Goldacre will speak to a capacity audience of staff and students from across the 3U Partner Institutions, DCU, Maynooth University and RCSI, as well as to a wider audience of interested stakeholders and the general public at the 3U Partnership sponsored event which will be held in RCSI's O'Flanagan Lecture Theatre, 123 St Stephen's Green, this afternoon.

The lecture can also be viewed via a live-stream broadcast available from 4.30pm through the 3U website.

Dr Ruth Davis, Director of 3U Partnership said "3U Partnership is delighted to welcome Dr Ben Goldacre to RCSI to talk to staff and students from all of the 3U Partner Institutions and to the wider public. Dr Goldacre's talk highlights the serious responsibilities on researchers to perform their research with the utmost integrity and to ensure their research results are communicated accurately and fully to a wider audience".

This 3U public lecture is part of an intensive four day summer institute - 3U INNOVEDIATE - which aims to train postgraduate and postoctoral researchers to be leaders and innovators of their communication strategy, as they connect with the public, across airwaves, on the Internet, in boardrooms and beyond.

Dr Goldacre is a doctor, academic, campaigner and writer whose work focuses on uses and misuses of science and statistics by journalists, politicians, drug companies and quacks. His first book Bad Science reached #1 in the UK non-fiction charts and has sold over half a million copies worldwide. His second book Bad Pharma discusses problems in medicine, focusing on missing trials, badly designed research, and biased dissemination of evidence. His third is a collection of columns and papers. He wrote the Bad Science column for a decade in the UK Guardian newspaper, and has written for the Times, the Telegraph, the Mail, the New York Times, the BMJ, and more, alongside presenting documentaries for the BBC, and appearing regularly on radio and TV.

Dr Davis said "Dr Goldacre's long-standing campaign to raise awareness of conscious and unconscious publication biases, non-reporting of negative results and misleading research claims is particularly timely in light of many recent research controversies which demonstrate that is can be extremely challenging for researchers to dispute commonly held theories."

Dr Goldacre is currently a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in the Department of Primary Care in the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He runs the EBMdataLab in the University of Oxford and builds interesting live data tools to improve science and healthcare, like OpenPrescribing and OpenTrials.

About 3U PARTNERSHIP
3U PARTNERSHIP is a new force in Irish higher education that combines the complementary strengths of DCU, Maynooth University and RCSI. Our vision is to form a deep and sustainable partnership, which will enable us to achieve much more together than we ever could alone. 3U PARTNERSHIP enhances our ability to deliver richer educational opportunities for our students and to solve some of the major research problems of our time. For more information on 3U PARTNERSHIP go to: 3u.ie

About 3U INNOVEDIATE
This 3U PARTNERSHIP public lecture is part of a four-day intensive 3U INNOVEDIATE Advanced Communication Skills Summer Institute which aims to train researchers to be leaders and innovators of their communication strategy, as they connect with the public, across airwaves, on the Internet, in boardrooms and beyond.

3U INNOVEDIATE is aimed at postgraduate students (either MSc by research or PhD) who are towards the end of their research, are writing up a thesis and/or looking for jobs or research funding and Early stage postdoctoral researchers who are or will be looking for research funding and/or will be communicating research results to different audiences

3U INNOVEDIATE is a 3U PARTNERSHIP joint initiative developed by DCU's School of Communications, Maynooth University's Writing Centre and Graduate Studies Office and RCSI's School of Postgraduate Studies, Department of Molecular & Cellular Therapeutics and the Health Professions Education Centre with additional contributions from external media professionals and from the 3U Partner Institutions' Libraries.

For more information on 3U INNOVEDIATE go to: 3u.ie/3u-innovediate