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The courses and workshops outlined in our programme are designed to meet the needs of all groups of staff within the College and offer a wide variety of development opportunities in five key areas:

• Health & Safety

• Information Technology

• Leadership & Management

• Skills & Knowledge

• Wellbeing

In our 2009/10 training programme, we introduced a section specific to the development of researchers, in response to principle 4 of the Concordat. This section has continued to develop following feedback received from research staff, line managers and principal investigators.

Research staff may also attend any of the other Staff Training & Development courses offered in the programme.

There is an increased expectation from funders of research on researchers to consider the wider implications of their research on society, culture and the economy. This is reflected in the addition of 'pathways to impact' documents in grant applications. So too, the Vitae RDF explicitly makes reference to the need to up skill researchers in the area of engagement, influence and impact. This includes, working with others, communication and dissemination and KT and impact.

The University of York has piloted a new skills training programme for PhD students and staff which ran November 10 - July 11. This included training in: 

Enterprise and knowledge transfer - 'the research and innovation programme' - 8 part series of business planning workshops, aimed specifically at commercialisation of research and industrial engagement. the sessions were 2 hours in duration and covered- Knowledge Transfer, IP, business models for research innovation, Market analysis, financial awareness, business planning and pitching to industry.

Also, the Enterprising Researcher residential programme - 2.5 day intensive school for PGRs and postdocs.

Policy and Practice - Sessions included: Science into Policy - 2 hour session on working in the social sciences and translating research to policy makers. Also includes evidence led policy making advice. Sessions on communicating your research to lay audiences also covered aspects of communicating to policy makers.

Public Engagement - The University is working closely with the NCCPE to pilot a training programme in PE - also, sessions have run on public engagement and communicating research to different audiences.

Impact - specifically around pathways to impact, the programme offered 4 central staff sessions for cognate groups of departments broadly based around research council area, on pathways to impact. 

The programme also offered 4 central PhD sessions on research with impact, designed to allow researchers to consider impact from the outset of their research careers.

The sessions are 2.5 hours in duration and  pose the following questions: 

1. Who will benefit from your research?

2. How will they beneift?

3. What will you do in order to ensure they have the opportunity to benefit.

The sessions are interactive, allowing participants to work in groups on a specific research idea, and build a pathway to impact- they also have the chance to view example pathways and plans, and also to review their colleagues. Where possible, academic input is also used.

Sessions on impact are also being run in the departments as part of grat writing programmes and as bespoke one off courses. Such courses have mainly been for staff in Sociology, Education, Computer Science, Arts, Politics and psychology.

Coaching and one to one support around writing pathways to impact is also offered as part of the programme.

Official pre-launch of the International Year of Chemistry 2011. An event held in Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on January 18^th brought together women chemists from 37 countries using modern communication tools; each country/region will arrange its own event(s) and individual breakfasts will be linked together by SKYPE/video, and by using Twitter.  In addition to networking, the aim is to celebrate the pivotal role of Marie Curie in chemistry, and to reflect on the current landscape for women chemists. 

Following consultation at the Research Staff Forum in March 2011 a programme has been devised and is scheduled to run for the first time in September 2011.  The programme exists as a one day event, but it is envisaged that following the initial event in September online content will be developed to make the Induction Programme available to researchers who need it, when they need it.

The University Research Day (URD) is a one-day event showcasing research within the university which provides an opportunity for the University to engage with the public while promoting cross-disciplinary networking.

Participants in this programme are drawn from projects funded by Strathclyde University’s EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Account and other cognate projects. The programme runs over three consecutive days and includes two three-hour sessions each day. The sessions are presented by staff engaged in research in the broad area of management studies, focussing on different features of knowledge exchange and innovation. 

In March 2011 the first Research Staff Development Forum was hosted by the University’s extended Researcher Development Team: Research and Knowledge Exchange Services, HR, the Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement (CAPLE), and the Careers Service. This event was aimed at all Strathclyde research staff and provided opportunities for sharing thoughts and concerns, finding out about institutional and national developments, as well as networking with other members of the research community.