“Chercher” is the modern French word for chercier which means to search, explore or get. Re-chercher hence indicates to look and explore again in the process of “searching really hard”. Research, as its name implies, is re-searching an existing knowledge. A successful research needs systematic planning so that it can be performed with scientific rigour and at the same time maintaining scientific standards and integrity. As such, the research ecosystem must be facilitative and collegial to pursue and maintain research excellence. 
The Institute for Research, Development, and Innovation (IRDI) in collaboration with the Center for Lifelong Learning (ICL), IMU had successfully organised a Short Course on Building a Successful Research Career from 24 – 28 June in the IMU Bukit Jalil campus. The five-day short course was designed with the main objective of supporting and developing the essential professional skills required for researchers as they take a critical, strategic view of their research and the wider academic research environment. 
| The short course consisted a series of five interactive workshops, namely |
|---|
| Writing Winning Proposals |
| Experimental Designs and Statistics |
| Research Supervision and Integrity |
| Research Project Management |
| Scientific Writing and Publishing. |
| 12 distinguished speakers of the Short Course | |
|---|---|
| Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman | Chairman of IMU Health |
| Prof Datuk Lokman Hakim Sulaiman | Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Director of IRDI |
| Prof Leong Chee Onn | Deputy Director of Research, IRDI |
| A/Prof Tan Eng Lai | Associate Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, IMU |
| A/Prof Dr Cho Ming Naing | Head, Biostatistics Core Facility IRDI |
| Prof Dr Teng Cheong Lieng | Professor, School of Medicine, IMU |
| Prof Dr Norazmi Mohd Nor | Dean of the School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) |
| A/Prof Dr Ho Weang Kee | University of Nottingham Malaysia |
| Prof Dr Cheong Sok Ching | Research Lead, Cancer Research Malaysia |
| Prof Dr Gan Siew Hua | Deputy Head (Research), School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia |
| Dr Chong Chun Wie | Monash University Malaysia |
The course was well attended by students as well as faculty members not only from IMU but also from other institutions and universities. It was beneficial as it provided insights into how to conduct research from writing good research proposals, securing research grants, managing a research project, to publishing the research findings.
