Collaboration is the new competition: developing sustainable international collaborative research delivered by a National Surgical Trainee Collaborative Group

Collaboration is defined in the Oxford dictionary as ‘the act of working with another person or group of people to create or produce something’.1 In the evolution of surgical research, collaboration is the new competition. This has been accelerated by the growth of trainee-led surgical research collaboratives. Advantages of collaboration include the sharing of ideas and perspectives regarding study design and conduct, the merging of data to create larger datasets and adequate power, and the pooling and efficacious use of resources. This facilitates robust methodology and the ability to allow individuals of diverse backgrounds/experience levels to become involved with high-impact research, translating to true patient benefit.2 This article explores lessons learned from the founding and development of the trainee-led Irish Surgical Research Collaborative (ISRC), to provide a blueprint for development of a sustainable collaborative research (CR) structure.