It is an acronym for the main elements required to develop a clinical academic career, and includes Dissemination, Implementation, Networking, Active Research and Clinical practice (DINARC). 

DINARC has been developed as few resources are currently freely available to guide individuals during the early part of a clinical academic career. Additionally during the early post doctoral career individuals may no longer have contact with their academic supervisors and their clinical managers may not have the suitable academic skills to be able to fully support and guide the developing clinical academic. DINARC has therefore been developed to address the gap in resource and offer a structured pragmatic tool to guide the achievements and milestones required to progress a clinical academic career. The stages are interchangeable and interface with each other.

DINARC was developed by the author, Dr Heather Iles-Smith, who has a depth of experience regarding leading Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Healthcare Practitioner research capacity building, academic supervision and mentorship related to the development of clinical academic careers. 

The five DINARC elements were identified as critical to form a clinical academic career. These elements were identified through review and synthesis of a range resources, created by a numerous individuals and bodies in support of clinical academic career development. An expert refence group, including clinical academics, academic supervisors, and those responsible for research capacity building, reviewed and fine tuned the DINARC concept.The Practitioner Research Plan was subsequently created and then piloted with six early career clinical academics. Further refinements were made based on feedback.

The toolkit is a resource to aid clinical practitioners in the development of a clinical academic career, as well as in supporting their managers, mentors and academic supervisors in guiding discussions with the practitioner. It is particularly useful for the early post-doctoral clinician. 

The tool consists of a - 

• Practitioner Research Plan

• Resource guide for use by or with Practitioners

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The toolkit is intended for use by:

• Clinicians, wishing to remain in practice but wishing to continue to pursue an academic career. It may be particularly useful during the early post-doctoral stage of their career. 

• Managers who may be more used to supporting clinical careers and who have less experience of supporting clinical academics.

• Mentors and Academic Supervisors who support clinicians pursuing a clinical academic career. The resources helps mentees to plan and record their progress.

The toolkit highlights the key areas required to develop a clinical academic career with key milestones. It outlines the elements and achievements that individuals will ideally pursue and complete to progress a clinical academic career.

Practitioners are advised to use the Resource Guide to create a Practitioner Research Plan that includes Dissemination, Implementation, Networking, Active Research and Clinical practice as categories. The plan is a living resource that will change over time. It is recommended that the plan is downloaded and saved under a version number and date to ensure the practitioner has a current record of their progress and planned actions. 

The plan can be used during appraisals, mentorship meetings and one to ones as a record of progress and to guide future development. Managers and mentors may also use the plan and DINARC resources as a prompt to the next steps in career progression.