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The Graduate School offer new postgraduate students a week of welcome events designed to help them integrate into University life. The programme is designed especially for postgraduates to help them identify services and opportunities specific to their needs and to create important postgraduate support networks.  An induction day is also held in October.

The University of Birmingham Graduate School website brings together all information offered to doctoral researchers by the University Graduate School (this covers both the University Graduate School and the Research Student Administration teams). The website is meant to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for all doctoral researcher information at the University. Upkeep of the website is the responsibility of the University Graduate School Projects Officer (Marketing and Events). New developments for the website are supported by the University’s systems and web teams.

The annual Research Poster Conference provides a unique opportunity for doctoral researchers at all stages of their studies to present their research to a diverse mixed-disciplined audience. The Conference is an excellent practical forum for the development of a range of essential communication and networking skills. It is also a chance for University students and staff to foster productive interdisciplinary links and find out more about the range of exciting research that takes place at the University of Birmingham. The usual resources are required to deliver the event: a venue; catering & catering staff; additional helpers to assist on the day; and a means of producing and displaying the posters. We also provided 3 doctoral researchers with the opportunity to become part of the project team that organised the Research Poster Conference.

Researchers are key members of academic staff. They are central to the College’s status as the leading centre for veterinary research in England, as well as its global aspirations. Beyond this, the College recognises that researchers make many other important contributions, for example in undertaking valuable research support, teaching and supervision duties, and as a vibrant group within the wider RVC community.

Following the launch of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, the College developed a Concordat Code of Practice and Guide which demonstrates the Colleges commitment to the provision of timely and effective support for Research Staff and their chosen career paths.

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.

The Researcher Development Programme (RDP) at Strathclyde offers all research students and staff a range of opportunities to continue their personal, professional and career management skills development. The courses, events and information sources aim to help researchers enhance their generic skills and competencies and widen their scope for future employability both inside and outside academia. The Researcher’s Portal is an online resource designed to support the RDP.

This is a two day workshop during which a series of talks by successful grant applicants illustrate the range of research that is supported by the different research councils, as well as offering insights into the world of EU funded projects. Participants develop their own research proposals in advance of day 2 and then work in small interdisciplinary groups (mock panels) to review and evaluate each other’s proposals.

GRADnews is a monthly e-newsletter aimed at postgraduate research students within the university and features information on a wealth of internal and external career-development related opportunities available to the community.