The MRC Biostatistics Unit run a number of successful online and in-person courses in statistics on a range of topics at different levels, for statistical, clinical and other audiences.
Online courses take place through the University of Cambridge’s Moodle platform, while in-person courses normally take place in Cambridge at the East Forvie Building on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Further information about our upcoming courses is given below.
Genetics in Drug Development, November 2025 – Registration is now open
Introduction to Adaptive Clinical Trials: Ethical and Statistical Considerations - Wednesday 23rd April - Registration is now open
This pre-workshop course aims to provide an introduction to adaptive clinical trial designs, covering both statistical and ethical considerations.
Statistics: the course will explore various types of adaptive designs, including Bayesian approaches, and discuss design and analysis considerations through lectures and case studies.
Ethics: the course will cover research ethics, risk-benefit analysis, and equipoise, using case studies to illustrate complex issues. It will examine informed consent, participant well-being, and the interplay between ethical and statistical aspects of adaptive trials.
The course will run from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM and will blend introductory basic theoretical material with practical case discussions, culminating in an integrated look at the statistical and ethical trade-offs in adaptive clinical trials.
Registration: Introduction to Adaptive Clinical Trials: Ethical and Statistical Considerations, 23 April 2025
Mendelian Randomization course, November 2025 – Registration is now open
Description: Studies based on Mendelian randomization are increasingly being used to distinguish causal relationships from observational associations in epidemiology and to prioritize potential targets for pharmaceutical intervention. This course intends to explain both simple and more complex statistical methods for causal inference in Mendelian randomization studies, and the instrumental variable assumptions on which they are based. The course includes several computing practicals in R.
Location: Online
Duration: 3 weeks, 4 live sessions per week (x2 courses per year)
Course Tutors: Dr Stephen Burgess (MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge), Dr Ville Karhunen (MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge), Dr Janne Pott (MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge), Dr Ang Zhou (MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge), Dr Amy Mason (Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge), Dr Dipender Gill (Sequoia Genetics/Imperial College London)
Upcoming course dates: 3rd – 21st November 2025
Course fee:
- Student Registration £200.00
- Academic / Non-profit Registration £380.00
- Private sector / Commercial Registration £500.00
Registration: Mendelian Randomization course | November 2025
More information: Mendelian Randomization course (mendelianrandomization.com)