ABSTRACTBy means of a process of pragmatic and philosophical investigation set out in three stages a method has been successively developed and set to work for linking health and social training courses of medium length to research. This method consists of strategies and prescriptive models. In the first stage the training is organised and the teachers' frames of references are developed. During the second stage an intensified identification of the major subjects and professional competences is started, by means of the feedback process inherent in the strategy. On this follows the further identification of relevant fields of research—elucidated by the prescriptive models—by means of a research process. From the third stage, which comprises a solid research and developmental programme, consisting of three principal phases, the prescriptive models are directive. In the last phase these models provide the criteria for the analysis of the follow‐up and results of the research link within training co