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About ClearLink Research
Build capability where it matters.
Provide expertise where it's needed.
Our Mission
ClearLink Research helps researchers and organisations navigate the thinking, methods and decisions
behind high-quality research. Both arms of the business serve the same purpose:
helping researchers make decisions they can explain and defend.
Most researchers are taught methods.
Few are taught how to think them through.
OUR Why
A single study involves hundreds of decisions: how the question is framed, what counts as an appropriate outcome, which analysis fits the data, and what the results can and cannot support. Each choice is defensible on its own. What's harder, and rarely taught explicitly, is how those choices need to hold together.
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ClearLink Research exists to teach that reasoning directly: not just the methods, but the thinking that connects them, so research is rigorous, coherent and defensible from question to conclusion.
A research environment where rigorous thinking is understood, decisions are defensible, and researchers have both the capability and the support to do their best work.
OUR vision
A research culture where reasoning is treated with the same care as results.
Two ways to work with us
What we offer
Research Consulting
Specialist research expertise across animal and broader health research, providing support from strategic advisory work with your team through to end‑to‑end research delivery.Â
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Study design and epidemiology
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Microbiology and microbiota research
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Statistical and data analysis, interpretation and review
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Research Education
Frameworks, courses and workshops that build research capability: systems thinking, defensible research practices, and critical decision-making, built around real research problems.
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Systems thinking applied to research design
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Defensible research practices, end to end
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Critical thinking and methodological decision-making
Rigour
Thoughtful, well‑reasoned decisions and defensible research.
The principles that guide how we approach research, education and collaboration.
Clarity
Clear communication and straightforward explanations.
OUR values
Integrity
Honest, transparent, responsible research practice.
Practicality
Tools and frameworks for everyday research tasks.
Make the implicit explicit
We break down core research thinking skills into clear, teachable steps rather than assuming prior knowledge.
Practical and applied
Every concept is paired with examples, templates, or frameworks that researchers can use immediately in their own work.
Some researchers need the tools and frameworks to approach their work more confidently. Others need an experienced research partner to help navigate a specific challenge. We work across both, with the same focus on clear thinking, rigorous methods and thoughtful research decisions.
One philosophy. Two applications.
OUR APPROACH
Evidence‑informed
Our training draws on established methodological principles and real‑world research experience.
Structured and coherent
Our modules and frameworks connect logically, helping researchers build a consistent approach to designing and defending their work.
Dear researcher,Â
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I started ClearLink Research because my own PhD changed the way I think about research.
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For much of my PhD, I focused on learning the tools, the methods, analyses and technical skills I needed to do good research. I thought I was doing well and making progress. Then I reached my viva and the feedback that followed made me step back and question how I had approached my research.
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Once the emotion settled, I realised the experience had taught me something important: I had spent too much time learning how to do research, and not enough time thinking deeply about why I was doing it.
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That changed how I approach research. I began looking beyond individual methods and thinking more carefully about how the research question, design, data, analysis and interpretation connect, and whether I could explain and defend each decision.
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That shift is the foundation of ClearLink Research.
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I created ClearLink Research to help researchers develop that thinking earlier: to build the capability to make sound, defensible research decisions, while supporting research teams with specialist expertise across animal and broader health research.
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Because good research isn't just about knowing what to do.
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It's about understanding why.
Warmly,Â
Sara Horsman
Founder, ClearLink Research
A letter from the founder
Meet the founder
Dr. Sara Horsman is an animal health researcher and founder of ClearLink Research, with expertise spanning epidemiology, study design, microbiology, microbiota research, and statistical analysis.
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Her research experience includes investigating animal health conditions, disease incidence, antimicrobial resistance, bacterial populations and the microbiome, across of range of research methods and study settings.
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Through ClearLink Research, Sara combines this technical research expertise with a broader focus on critical thinking, defensible research decisions, and building researcher capability.
