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A full day conference for research staff from the 5 North East Universities with a programme aimed to help researchers reflect upon their own professional development and focus on the actions they can take to develop and manage their careers

This 'PI Development Programme' offers a range of transferable skills training, designed to assist the professional development of postdoctoral researchers, who are new to, or aspire to, the role of research leader.

Developing research funding applications is a multi-stage process including; refining the question and methods, finding collaborators, identifying appropriate funding sources, knowing what makes a successful application and who to get advice from, costing the bid and writing the application form. This project seeks to address some of these stages. The specific objectives are: 1. To create a series of short video clips/ audio recordings featuring staff from Department of Health Sciences, covering: • Features of successful applications. These will spotlight on senior staff who are panel members for some of the major health research funding bodies. • Staff experiences of applying for external funding. These will contain reflections of staff who have applied for research funding, both successful and unsuccessful. These resources will be stored on the Health Sciences Staff Intranet (on a web page dedicated to the project) with links from both research and teaching related pages. An online survey will give people who access the resource an opportunity to feedback their views on its usefulness. 2. To establish a Learning Set of early to mid career research staff to facilitate the development of skills in writing research funding applications. Early to mid career researchers will present research ideas to the learning set for discussion or commenting on applications in progress. The group would meet once a month and maintain an email list of members that could be contacted for advice when needed. The project team will be supported by two senior members of staff (Karen Bloor and Karen Spilsbury) and has been approved by Head of Department (Professor Christine Godfrey) and Chair of Departmental Research Committee (Professor Nicky Cullum).

The York Award: Researchers is a certificate of the University of York which recognises and rewards those PhD students who undertake an active programme of personal development over the course of their registration. It operates alongside degree programmes and aims to capture the impact of all aspects of university life in terms of the skills and experiences that they will find beneficial in their future life and work. The process of applying for the York Award: Researchers will allow postgraduate researchers to evaluate their unique set of skills and experiences, and ensure that they are able to communicate the value of their research degree and transferrable skills to an academic and a lay audience.

Building Impact into Social Science Research was funded by vitae innovate fund applied for and successfully awarded to Professor Richard Thorpe and Dr Paul Ellwood. The event was supported by the Staff and Departmental Development Unit at Leeds. Much of the following text formed part of a proposal to Vitae written by Paul Ellwood and Richard Thorpe, with summary and context written by Jenn Chubb at the University of York. This Vitae Innovate funded project enabled the development of a module to be integrated into postgraduate training programmes – it contained both concepts and practical tools aimed at helping students understand and connect with aspects related to the impact of social science research. The Innovate fund supported a two day Leeds University Business School course entitled Building Impact into Social Science Research followed by a two day Social Science- wide White Rose residential event at Bodington Hall with input from academics reporting on the impact of their research and interactive group work activities. Building Impact into Social Science Research aimed to provide an introduction to this increasingly important aspect of a researcher’s life. Through a mixture of presentations, specialist speakers and practical exercises, the workshop provided a grounding in the emerging UK policy environment, appropriate research design and practical engagement mechanisms with research stakeholders.

Skills Forge is a single website containing a range of modules to help track and organise research postgraduate activity. It has three key themes: 1. Reflecting on skills (currently based on the Joint Skills Statement, moving over to the Research Development Framework in Summer 2010) including research management, covering; designing systems for collating information, identifying and accessing bibliographic resources and other relevant information, and using IT appropriately for database management and recording or presenting information. 2. Identifying and recording development activities. 3. Supervisory and progression monitoring processes.

Newcastle University Library aims to provide support for researchers at all stages of their research career, from taught postgraduates through to more experienced researchers. Provision is discipline specific, though based on a common framework and is targeted through the three Faculties: Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE), Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) and Medical Sciences (FMS). Similarities and differences in provision are highlighted below. SAgE: Research PGs - The Library offers a programme of 8 IL workshops as an integral part of the Faculty Postgraduate Researcher Development Programme (PGRDP). Attendance at workshops earns credits and students must gain a minimum number of credits to progress in their research degree. The full programme is run in Oct/ Nov, with 5 repeat workshops in Feb and an intensive week in June. Content includes: Introduction to Library Services, Finding Research Information, Managing Information, Current awareness, Keeping up to date, Using the Internet and Web 2.0 tools, Writing for Publication, plus a series of discipline/ resource specific sessions. Taught PGs – a cut down version of the Postgraduate Researcher Training Programme (PGRTP) is offered to all Masters students at School level, where it can be more tailored to specific subjects. Research Staff – Core workshops from the PGRTP are run on a regular basis for staff from both SAgE and FMS. FMS: The Liaison Team for the Faculty of Medical Sciences run two ‘carousels’ of IL training for postgraduates and researchers. The first programme or carousel is intended for Postgraduate taught students and is delivered in the first two terms to provide comprehensive information literacy skills at an appropriate level. This is delivered in conjunction with the Graduate School. The sessions for research students and contract researchers aim to group necessary skills together in a programme which allows attendance at all or individual session in order to gain better skills which are required at research level. Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty: The PGRTP programme for HASS research postgraduates includes 4 x 2 hour sessions with Library staff, All students have to complete an assessment which is marked by library staff and must be passed in order to proceed on the programme. This exercise gives us an excellent insight into the progress of the students.

A career development programme to support research staff in making a successful career transition into employment which meets their professional expertise, skills and knowledge levels and reflects their motivations, values and aspirations.

A two day summer school which provides research staff with a platform for development to do better research and to advance in their research careers. This programme is for new research staff, who are within their first 12 months of their first research contract. Day 1: Taking a Strategic View of Research: Getting Published and Seeking Funding Understanding the Vision and Research Strategy of the University Working Your Own Vision Personal Motivation for Research and Funding as a Career Strategy The Politics of Getting Published SWOT/ Skills Audit Day 2: Managing Projects, Teams and Funding Applications Project Management Approaches The Research Team – how you fit Getting Funding - What Works; What Doesn’t Esteem Factors & Your Researcher-Profile

We provide a number of online training courses to PGRs - this is especially beneficial to distance and part-time PGRs