Simulation Education And Research Collaborative in Healthcare (SEARCH COST Action)
Background and goals
Healthcare simulation4techniques that recreate clinical events or environments for training, assessment, quality improvement, and research4has evolved from basic technical training into a well-established, complex, evidence-based approach that enhances patient safety and healthcare quality, as well as individual and team skill development.
However, simulation research in Europe remains fragmented across national, disciplinary, and professional boundaries, limiting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and equitable implementation.
Five major challenges constrain its potential: keeping pace with rapid technological change; preparing healthcare professionals for increasingly complex and multicultural systems; translating simulation into measurable improvements in quality and safety; overcoming disciplinary and geographic fragmentation; and ensuring sustainable career pathways for emerging researchers.
Objectives and benefits
The Simulation Education And Research Collaborative in Healthcare (SEARCH) will address these challenges by establishing a pan-European community of practice and research that connects academics, clinicians, industry, policymakers, scientific societies, and patient representatives. SEARCH will coordinate and strengthen healthcare simulation research, build capacity, and promote inclusiveness across Europe.
Building on the diffuse expertise of the European simulation community, SEARCH will align research efforts, strengthen capacity, and promote mutual learning, knowledge mobilisation, and translation. It will map existing resources, projects, and opportunities; identify barriers to knowledge transfer; develop an open access toolkit alongside a ten-year European research agenda; foster interdisciplinary consortia; and help establish sustainable career pathways.
RCO 1. Build and foster a robust and sustainable pan-European network of health and care simulation research and innovation
RCO 2. Coordinate the generation, mobilisation, and application of knowledge
RCO3. Develop a research agenda for healthcare simulation for the next decade
CBO 1. Map infrastructure, expertise and resources to promote equitable access to resources, training, and knowledge
CBO2. Identify, document, and reduce systematic barriers to knowledge mobilisation and translation in healthcare simulation
CBO3. Promote knowledge mobilisation and translation in healthcare simulation
CBO 4. Diversify the healthcare simulation research landscape through cross-disciplinary
collaborations involving industry and disciplines outside healthcare
CBO 5. Establish a sustainable career trajectory for YRIs to develop the unique skills required to conduct innovative research in healthcare simulation
Results
This Action seeks to address the thorny challenges presented in section 1.A by establishing a unique pan-European community of healthcare simulation research and innovation called SEARCH (Simulation Education And Research Collaborative in Healthcare). The main aim of this Action is to develop and establish a significant critical mass of academic, clinical, and industry stakeholder partners working toward a coordinated, sustainable, inclusive agenda of simulation research, education, and practice to improve healthcare in the European Research Area and beyond.
SEARCH will unify stakeholders from industry, academia, and clinical healthcare to continuously evaluate and respond to emerging technologies in healthcare simulation. SEARCH will focus on simulation for educating HCPs for dynamic healthcare environments and for improving healthcare quality and safety, by creating and nurturing sustainable research and knowledge exchange structures
SEARCH will break down siloes and encouraging collaboration, by creating a platform for stakeholders to connect, work, learn, and co-create new knowledge.
SEARCH will establish clear and sustainable career trajectories for colleagues across industry, academia, and clinical practice to develop themselves as healthcare simulation researchers and practitioners.
Societal impact
By aligning research, innovation, and policy, SEARCH will advance simulation science and establish a sustainable, inclusive European ecosystem for healthcare simulation research that will enhance healthcare outcomes across Europe well beyond the lifetime of the Action.