| The course runs from 16 to 18 February 2027. |
Why do promising interventions struggle to become part of everyday care? This intensive, three-day course explores implementation science and focuses on the work involved in introducing, embedding, and sustaining evidence-based practice and other innovations in health and care.
Led by Professors Carl May and Tracy Finch, the course examines the four kinds of work through which implementation happens: how people make sense of a practice, commit to it, carry out the work, and assess its effects. Grounded in evidence and attentive to context, the course builds on their internationally recognised work to develop normalisation process theory (NPT) and its practical applications. Their work provides a framework for shared understandings of the processes that lead to implementation outcomes.
The course is highly participatory. Participants are invited to bring a current, completed, or planned implementation project and use it throughout paired exercises, group workshops, and structured peer review. Participants will apply NPT and its practical tools to diagnose challenges and identify ways forward for their work. Patient-Centred Equity Design will help participants examine whose needs are served and who bears the burden of change in implementation projects. The SPRINT pathway will support them in turning analysis into a structured plan for leadership, adaptation, participation, learning, and long-term integration of innovations in practice.
Designed for practitioners and researchers with varied experience, this course brings theory, evidence, and practical decision-making together in a single learning journey. You will leave with an integrated analysis of your own project, feedback from peers, and a clearer plan for putting evidence-informed practice into routine use.
This course provides concentrated training on the core problem in implementation science: understanding the mechanisms that motivate and shape implementation processes themselves, and then using that understanding to shape practice and improve outcomes. Implementation science has been defined as:
The scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice, with the aim of improving the quality and effectiveness of health services and care.
We take a slightly different view. We focus on the process of implementation. We define implementation as a process that occurs when one group of actors seek to translate their strategic intentions into the everyday practices of others. Understanding how these processes work, what the work of implementation is, and how we can do implementation better, are the purposes of this intensive, participatory, short course. There are many ways of understanding, planning, and evaluating implementation projects, but in this course, we focus on Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) and its associated applications. NPT identifies, characterises, and explains the mechanisms that shape and motivate implementation processes. Importantly, its mechanisms have also been shown to predict implementation outcomes.
We will focus on three aspects of this body of work:
- Understanding the mechanisms that drive implementation processes using NPT. NPT provides a validated basis for understanding the dynamics of implementation processes and their outcomes.
- Using Normalisation Process Theory applications: including the NoMAD survey instrument, the ItFits tool for intervention tailoring, and Patient-Centred Equity Design for complex interventions and their implementation.
- Applying a structured pathway for real-world implementation: the SPRINT tool for implementation process design and evaluation. Using the SPRINT practice bundle and leadership taxonomies to conduct structured pre-implementation assessments.
Tuition fees for 2027:
- £1000
- £500 for residents of LMIC (eligible countries)
When applying for discounted fees, please include proof of student or LMIC status instead of your CV. LMIC status can be confirmed with a passport and proof of current residence.
Applying for this course
Applications for 2027 are now open and can be made via our online application form.
The application deadline for this course is Friday 15 January 23:59 UK time. We strongly advise that you apply early as courses may close earlier than the stated deadline if they become full.
Participants will be invited to submit a 250-word abstract of their implementation project before the course, using a template we will provide. The description should cover:
- What is being implemented.
- The setting and team.
- The current stage of implementation.
- The main challenge or question the participant wants to work on during the course.
Participants without a current project may use a recent completed implementation project or a planned future project as their anchor case. Please notify the organiser in advance so an appropriate case pack can be provided.
Please read LSHTM's Admissions policies prior to submitting your application. LSHTM may cancel courses two weeks before the first day of the course if numbers prove insufficient. In those circumstances, course fees will be refunded.
Visas
The student is responsible for obtaining any visa or other permissions to attend the course, and is encouraged to start the application process as early as possible as obtaining a visa for the UK can sometimes take a long time. The Short Courses team can provide supporting documentation if requested.
Accommodation
A list of hotels located in the vicinity of LSHTM, along with further resources for short-term accommodation, can be found on our accommodation pages.
Important information
Please note:
- Students will be required to bring their own laptops.
- If you have been offered a place on the course you will not be able to register without bringing a formal ID (Passport) and without having obtained the correct visa if required.
- It is essential that you read the current visa requirements for short course students.
- LSHTM may cancel courses two weeks before the first day of the course if numbers prove insufficient. In those circumstances, course fees will be refunded.
- LSHTM cannot accept responsibility for accommodation, travel and other losses incurred as a result of the course being cancelled.