NASCIC Announcement
The SCI Research Advocacy Course, known as SCI RAC, has moved to a new home at course.nascic.org. The full twelve-module curriculum is free, the learner experience has been refreshed, and the course is open now to anyone who wants to partner in spinal cord injury research.
What SCI RAC Is and Why It Has a New Home
A free, twelve-module online course built by the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium (NASCIC) to train people living with SCI, family members, caregivers, advocates, and researchers to partner meaningfully in spinal cord injury research.
- 12 Modules
- Free Cost
- Self-paced Format
- course.nascic.org New home
The course content readers know is intact. What has changed is everything around it. SCI RAC now lives on its own subdomain with a redesigned learner interface, cleaner navigation, and faster page loads, so course progress, modules, and resources are easier to reach on any device.
For learners new to the platform, a step-by-step how-to guide walks through enrollment, module navigation, and progress tracking at course.nascic.org/how-to.
Why NASCIC Built SCI RAC
For decades, the people most affected by spinal cord injury were treated as research subjects rather than research partners. Studies were designed without their input, priorities were set without their voices, and outcomes were measured by what researchers thought mattered most. SCI RAC was built to change that pattern.
How SCI RAC Came to Be
The shift toward partnered research in SCI accelerated in 2016, when the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute hosted a conference focused on collaborative research and innovation.3 NASCIC formed in 2018 from grassroots advocacy across the community living with SCI, with research partnership as a founding priority.4 Around that same time, work was underway on the Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Guiding Principles, which were formally published in 2021 and define what meaningful research partnership actually looks like in practice.2 SCI RAC launched in 2023 as the operational answer to those years of strategic work.4
The Gaps the Course Was Designed to Close
Before SCI RAC, four practical gaps stood between advocates and meaningful research partnership. Many advocates had the lived expertise but not the technical vocabulary, study design literacy, or research process knowledge to engage on equal footing. Many researchers wanted to engage lived experience but were not sure when in the research process to do it or how to do it well. There was no shared starting point that both groups could work from. And there were few clear paths from interest to actual partnership.1
The IKT Guiding Principles describe partnerships built on trust, shared decision-making, open communication, mutual respect for diverse expertise, flexibility, mutual benefit, ethical care, and respect for the practical and financial constraints of all partners.2 SCI RAC takes those principles and turns them into a curriculum that prepares both sides for the work.
What the Full Course Covers
SCI RAC is built as twelve modules, each one a self-contained step in the path from understanding spinal cord injury research to actively partnering in it. Learners can move through the course at their own pace.
Introduction to Research Advocacy
Sets the stage. What research advocacy is, why it matters, and what readers should expect to take away from the course.
The Research Process and R and D Decision Makers
How research actually gets done, who funds it, who decides what gets studied, and where advocates can have influence.
Addressing Historical Challenges for SCI Studies
A grounded look at what has held SCI research back, including representation gaps and study design assumptions worth questioning.
SCI Biology Part 1. How an SCI Causes Loss of Function
Plain-language biology. What happens to the spinal cord at the moment of injury and in the hours and days that follow.
SCI Biology Part 2. Aging with a Spinal Cord Injury
The long view. How the body changes over decades after SCI and what active research areas address aging-related needs.
Neuroprotection
Research strategies aimed at limiting damage after injury, before secondary mechanisms can compound the loss of function.
Cell Replacement
What is being researched in cell-based therapies, where the science actually stands, and what makes a trial credible.
Regeneration and Neurorepair
Approaches that aim to rebuild damaged neural tissue and reconnect signaling pathways across the injury site.
Retraining and Neuroplasticity
How the nervous system can learn to recover function through training, stimulation, and other targeted interventions.
Quality of Life Research
Why outcomes that matter to daily living, from bladder and bowel function to mental health and community participation, are real research questions.
SCI 101 for Researchers
Built for researchers and clinicians who want to engage lived-experience expertise. A grounded primer on what daily life after SCI actually involves.
Getting Started
The practical close. How to move from finishing the course to partnering in research, including next steps NASCIC supports.
What the Published Evaluation Found
SCI RAC was independently evaluated and the results were published in Spinal Cord, the peer-reviewed journal of the International Spinal Cord Society, in March 2026.1 The study followed a three-wave prospective design and applied the RE-AIM framework to measure reach, effectiveness, and maintenance of the course.
Significant Gains in Knowledge and Capacity
The study found significant improvements in participants’ knowledge of the SCI research process (Glass’ Δ = 0.50, p < 0.001) and in their perceived capacity to partner in research, including capability gains (Glass’ Δ = 0.59, p < 0.001).1 These are medium effect sizes by standard interpretation, meaning the changes were not marginal. The course measurably moved the needle.
High Satisfaction
Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the course and positive learning experiences across content, format, and method of presentation.1 The authors concluded that SCI RAC “showed initial improvements in course participants’ knowledge and perceived capacity to partner, and participants were satisfied with the course.”1
What the Authors Recommended Next
The published evaluation also surfaced what comes after the course itself. The authors recommended that SCI RAC be offered alongside interventions that connect researchers and research users, so that what learners gain in knowledge and capacity translates into actual partnerships on real studies.1 That recommendation maps directly to the post-course supports NASCIC is building around the course.
Who the Full Course Is Built For
SCI RAC is designed for three audiences, each with a different starting point and a shared destination.
People Living with Spinal Cord Injury
For anyone with SCI who wants their lived expertise to count where research decisions are actually made. The course gives readers the vocabulary, process knowledge, and confidence to step into a research partnership on equal footing.
Family Members, Caregivers, and Community Advocates
For the people closest to daily life after SCI, whose perspective on outcomes, priorities, and what matters most belongs in the research conversation. The course prepares them to advocate effectively in formal research settings.
Researchers and Clinicians
For researchers and clinicians who want to engage lived-experience expertise meaningfully rather than tokenistically. SCI 101 for Researchers (Module 11) is built specifically for this audience, with the rest of the course offering shared language for cross-table conversations.
Take the Full SCI RAC Course
The full twelve-module SCI Research Advocacy Course is open now at course.nascic.org. The course is free. Enrollment takes a few minutes. Progress is saved between sessions, so readers can work through the material on whatever schedule fits.
Ready to start?
Enroll free, work at your own pace, and join a growing community of research partners.
Go to course.nascic.orgNew to the platform? See the how-to guide for enrollment, module navigation, and progress tracking.
More lived experience in the room means better research questions, better study designs, and better outcomes that reflect what actually matters to people after spinal cord injury. That is what SCI RAC was built for, and what its new home is built to make easier.
References
- Giroux EE, Noguchi KS, Ocampo G, Munro B, Gainforth HL. Evaluating the reach, effectiveness, and maintenance of an online spinal cord injury research advocacy course to train research partners. Spinal Cord. 2026;64(3):250–257. doi:10.1038/s41393-025-01166-x. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41393-025-01166-x.
- Gainforth HL, Hoekstra F, McKay R, et al. Integrated Knowledge Translation Guiding Principles for Conducting and Disseminating Spinal Cord Injury Research in Partnership. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2021;102(4):656–663. doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2020.09.393. See also the IKT Guiding Principles resource: https://iktprinciples.com/.
- Praxis Spinal Cord Institute. About Praxis and partnered SCI research. https://praxisinstitute.org/.
- North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium (NASCIC). About NASCIC and the SCI Research Advocacy Course. https://nascic.org/.
