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PhD students are given a budget to use to organise their own seminar series, both of their peers, who typically are not invited to Departmental seminars and 'big' names who are often monopolised by staff.

The University's Business and Management Training programme comprises a wide range of short courses aimed at professionals working in other organisations in the county/region. Through Roberts funding, research staff have been able to pursue a three day project management course which is offered as part of the BMT programme.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute PhD programmes provide research opportunities and training for graduate students and clinicians.

Several ‘Careers in Academia’ workshops have been held, covering all subject cohorts, in which the steps needed to secure an academic position were discussed. The workshops were supported by the staff from the careers unit as well as senior and junior academics from across the university.

In this 3 hour session, we invited an expert panel comprising journal editors, funders, academics, journalist and a science communication charity to discuss peer review with our PhD students and postdoc - looking at peer review from the academic community’s point of view and how the public gauges if scientific evidence is robust or not.

A training programme to build the skills and capabilities of early career researchers, enabling them to develop their potential as research leaders.

The Skills for the Professional Researcher (SPR) programme is at the core of our provision for postdoctoral and early career researchers. Presented by the University's Academic Practice Unit, the programme consists of a series of workshops that seek to combine depth with breadth, with sessions aimed at helping researchers hone their research skills (including specialist IT skills) and research management techniques, whilst also building capacity to enable them to take their research outside academia and engage with the wider world. The programme continues to evolve as new needs are identified and sought to be addressed.

Two pilot three day non –residential ‘local GRAD schools’ with a key emphasis on employability skills and personal effectiveness to run May and July 2010.

Enhancing the career prospects of PHD students and Post-docs, increasing self-awareness and personal effectiveness.

The MPLS Division at Oxford provides a programme of skills training courses for its doctoral research students and postdoctoral researchers, based upon the Joint Skills Statement. The programme is reviewed on an ongoing basis, so that each year’s programme is relevant and up to date. For 2009-10 an overarching framework of personal effectiveness courses has been established, with the aim of supporting researchers in their development from the early stages of their doctoral studies through to the first permanent appointment, be this inside or outside academia. In addition to the existing website, a new skills handbook has been produced which will provide comprehensive information about the programme for new students and research staff.