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Using the Skills Training Programme courses, the Medical Sciences Division seeks to equip Graduate Research Students and Research Staff members with a comprehensive set of skills ensuring each researcher realises his/her maximum potential and thereby lay the foundations for a successful career in the sciences.

As part of the Medical Sciences Divisional Skills Training Programme graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to explore moving away from academia and consider the opportunities open to them for a career based in Medical Writing and Medical Communications. Beginning with an introductory session comprising of presentations and a networking lunch with potential employers. Then a more focussed two workshop.

A residential workshop for PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) with an interest in interdisciplinarity and the commercialisation of research.

A number of Research Staff Societies have been set up by research staff at the University of Edinburgh. These have been started by motivated research staff in several Schools and Research Institutes. The Researcher Development Programme has worked closely with the societies providing help and support. This society development was recognised by being shortlisted for the Times Higher Awards 2008.

The Department of Chemistry at the University of York developed a suite of training in the area of Enterprise, KT and impact in 2009/ 2010. These courses were developed and delivered within the Green Chemistry team led by Professor James Clark with input from a range of academics and industrial partners. The following text is largely from the promotional material supplied by Sue Couling sue.couling@york.ac.uk. The courses offered included: 1. Intellectual Property, Business Opportunities And The Impact Of Environmental Legislation 'Increasingly demanding environmental legislation can enable green chemists to develop technologies and new business opportunities' 2. Commercialisation of Science 'Following on from Intellectual Property, students will learn about technology transfer, licensing, and setting up a spin out company to market their greener product' 3. Public Awareness of Science and Sustainability 'Training and practical experience of designing, planning and taking part in a range of public facing events'

A survey of researchers to assess their attitudes towards entrepreneurship.

An institutional programme provided by departments, faculties and the University for postgraduate researchers. Complimented by an online tool 'MyPGR' containing a JSS-linked Development Needs Analysis, Record of Supervision Meetings, Skills Record and Personal Development Planner.

This is a brief summary of the organisational model that we have adopted in order to work more closely with Schools, Faculties and Departments and 'partner' with them in understanding and providing for the needs of their particular staff in a ‘bespoke’ way where appropriate. This positions us better to target our resource towards meeting real needs, while striving for enhanced alignment between UCL’s research strategy and individual aspirations. This new model also enables us to work more closely in partnership with other key people deployed at a Faculty or Department level, such as Research Facilitators, Research Leaders, HR Consultants, Faculty Managers etc.

Ketso is an interactive, hands-on toolkit for bringing meetings and workshops to life. It is compact and portable, simple to use and accessible to everyone. Ketso extends people's ability to run effective and enjoyable workshops - virtually anywhere and in any setting. It encourages people to be creative and share in productive dialogue, while also generating real results that can be put into action. Ketso provides a set of tabletop tools that can be used to capture and display people's ideas. It consists of colourful 'branches', 'leaves' and other materials, which can be placed on a felt workspace and easily moved around in response to changing discussion. Ketso is robust and portable, and comes in a handy carrying bag, making it easy to transport to and from events. Ketso provides a series of free resources to help you run effective workshops and engagement processes - such as workshop plans and training videos in planning and running a workshop.

The Social Media sessions demonstrated a successful integration of a student-led initiative within a formal graduate training provision. The initiative underlined the importance of engaging PhD students in their own learning and training needs, in both sharing expertise with peers and in contributing to their own professional development. In doing so, it demonstrated to other postgraduate researchers how they might utilise their own areas of expertise to develop further student-led initiatives.