Subscribe by RSSDatabase of practice

In April 2008, the HERDA-SW Research Management Group Research Training network submitted a proposal to run a pilot South West Universities GRADschool during 2008/9. The aim of the proposal was to demonstrate and pilot a mutually beneficial regional collaboration in the area of generic skills training for research students.

InfoPlus is an online resource for postgraduate students and researchers. It supports the use of Library resources by highlighting the range of services that the Library offers via a blend of e-learning tutorials and videos.

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

A series of methodology taster sessions which provide a basic introduction to a methodology, its application with examples, its advantages and its limitations or drawbacks. The seminars will later be available on the web as podcasts, together with key readings and links to other relevant resources on the web, making this a valuable web repository on research methodologies.

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.

Gradschool type resdiential activity to engender practice and skills development opportunities in enterprise related activity including social entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and general entrepreneuralism Participants from research intensive institutions in the North of England will collaborate and innovate: • Enterprise focussed intensive four day residential course • Explore, develop and practice career enhancing skills alongside real entrepreneurs. • Available to Research Staff and Research Students from all disciplines. • EPSRC Funded • Designed for future research leaders in all areas of employment • Enterprise, creativity and innovative thinking • Places for 40 participants from the Northwest and beyond will join an expert team of tutors, intrepreneur mentors in a highly interactive and challenging environment.

The Northern Enterprise Schools Consortium aims to create a series of 3 to 4 residential workshops on both sides of the Pennines annually. It utilises Knowledge transfer, social enterprise and intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial activity to deliver a number of career skill needs to early career researchers. It is a collaborative exercise between the universities of Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds, Salford, Durham, and York.

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.

Open competition to fund projects relating to research staff development

•The focus of the scheme is Researcher Excellence and encompasses Professional and Career Development •Individual objectives for the 6 month relationship are defined by the Mentor & Mentee at the initial meeting. •Following a successful 6 month pilot scheme in 2009/10 the scheme to be expanded to 20 Researcher Mentor/Mentee pairs. Both Mentors and Mentees receive training. •Disseminating professional skills more widely across the Research Community, Loughborough can gain key benefits in research success, especially in preparation for the Research Excellence Framework. •The Scheme helps the University to fulfil the requirements of the 'Concordat for the Career Development of Researchers’ in supporting the career and professional development of Research Staff.