| Sumario: | Objectives: Building research capacity among clinicians is essential for bridging the research–practice gap and improving patient outcomes. This is critical given growing evidence that clinician engagement in research is associated with improved patient outcomes, service delivery and health system performance. The Research Ready Grant Program (RRGP) is a co‐designed initiative to support clinicians in regional settings to develop and implement research projects grounded in clinical practice. This paper reports the design, governance and operationalisation of the programme as informed by Cooks principles for successful research capacity building. Methods: This paper presents a framework‐guided account of the design and operationalisation of the Research Ready Grant Program (RRGP), examining how the programme has been iteratively developed across multiple cycles to respond to the needs of a regional health service. The paper foregrounds the programme's multidisciplinary structure and dual‐university collaboration model, offering transferable design insights for institutions seeking to embed sustainable research capacity building in rural and regional healthcare settings. Results (Design Indicators): The design and implementation indicators demonstrate how these principles were translated into programme components (including education, paid mentorship, governance and dissemination supports) and iteratively refined across successive programme cycles using participant feedback and programme records. These findings describe programme operationalisation and evolution rather than outcomes or effectiveness. Conclusion: The RRGP provides a framework‐guided approach for designing and sustaining research capacity building in regional and rural health services. By making visible the programme's multidisciplinary structure and dual‐university collaboration model, this paper offers practical design insights for institutions seeking to embed sustainable research capacity within rural and regional healthcare settings. What Is Already Known on This Subject?: Research capacity building is widely recognised as an important strategy for strengthening evidence‐based practice, improving healthcare delivery and supporting clinician engagement in research, particularly within regional and rural health services.Frameworks such as Jo Cooke's research capacity building principles are frequently cited in the literature; however, most published studies describe research capacity building conceptually or evaluate outcomes, with limited detail regarding how these principles are operationalised through programme design, governance structures, mentorship and implementation processes in real‐world settings.Detailed, transferable accounts of how sustainable clinician‐led research capacity building programmes are co‐designed, governed and iteratively refined within regional health services remain scarce, despite growing evidence that clinician and organisational engagement in research is associated with improved patient outcomes and service performance. What Does This Study Add?: This study provides a detailed, framework‐guided account of how Cooke's research capacity building principles were operationalised through the co‐design, governance, delivery and iterative refinement of the Research Ready Grant Program within a regional health service.The study demonstrates how structured education, paid mentorship, multidisciplinary collaboration, joint university–health service governance and Plan–Do–Study–Act refinement cycles can function together as an embedded and sustainable model for clinician‐led research capacity building, rather than as a one‐off training initiative.The paper offers practical and transferable design insights for health services and academic partners seeking to embed sustainable research capacity building within rural and regional healthcare settings, while also contributing greater methodological clarity regarding the distinction between intervention design and outcome evaluation in research capacity building programmes.
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