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In the spotlight

About 'In the spotlight':

Each month we will be showcasing our (and selected external) courses and resources related to a selected theme. If you want us to cover a particular theme in future issues, please let us know.

Leadership

  • Course: The first national Leadership in Action course is now open for booking http://bit.ly/vnDRUi
  • Resource: The Leading researcher is the latest in our researcher booklets series: a practical approach to starting or continuing your leadership journey. Downloadable from www.vitae.ac.uk/researcherbooklets, plus limited hard copies through the hub
  • Resource: Issue 60 of PGR tips is all about developing your leadership skills www.vitae.ac.uk/pgrtips
  • Resource: A draft Leadership lens on the Researcher Development Framework is now available online for a consultation period. We'd love to hear what you think! http://bit.ly/vi5QsL
  • Resource: See our specific leadership development pages for postgraduate researchers, research staff and staff supporting researcher development at www.vitae.ac.uk/leadership
  • Resource: Leadership development for Principal Investigators is our online resource for new and aspiring PIs www.vitae.ac.uk/pi
  • Training resource: The non-residential and residential versions of the 3 day Leadership in Action course are available for piloting. If you are interested in running this inspirational course, contact us at nwhub@vitae.ac.uk.

Time and project management

  • Course: Several NW ‘part-time researcher' and ‘effective researcher' courses for postgraduates will be held in the academic year 2011/12. If you would like to be contacted when these courses opens for booking, email nwhub@vitae.ac.uk
  • Resource: PGR tips is a monthly publication featuring tips and tricks for researchers, many of which feature time and project management (www.vitae.ac.uk/pgrtips).
  • Resource: The balanced researcher booklet offers information to help tackle and juggle the many demands on your time (www.vitae.ac.uk/researcherbooklets).
  • Resources: Check out the following sections of the Vitae website for lots of advice and support in time and project management:
  • Training resource: The ‘Part-time researcher', ‘Effective researcher for postgraduate researchers' and ‘Effective researcher for research staff' training programmes are freely available for use in UK HEIs (www.vitae.ac.uk/resources).
  • External resource: Check out the ‘Getting things done' model from David Allen. Some free articles can be found at http://bit.ly/kuvY70.
  • External resource: We can recommend the JISC infonet tools and techniques pages for further support (www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools).

Social media

  • Course: Coming in autumn 2011 - 21st Century Research Profiles, using social media to benefit your research and research profile. If you would like to be contacted when this course opens for booking, email nwhub@vitae.ac.uk
  • Get involved: Vitae has added some new social sharing tools to enable website visitors to easily inform friends and colleagues about Vitae website content via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious and email. Look for the icons on every page of the Vitae website.
  • Get involved: Talk to other researchers on one of the Vitae blogs:
  • Resource: PGR tips is a monthly publication featuring tips and tricks for researchers. Recent issues related to social media include digital networking, digital researcher and new this week is advice on blogging (www.vitae.ac.uk/pgrtips).
  • Resource: Digital researcher is a national event to explore and develop the skills needed for research in an increasingly digital world and gain ideas for managing information. There is lots of advice, slides and podcasts from the event at www.vitae.ac.uk/dr11 and www.vitae.ac.uk/dr10. To register interest in attending a future digital researcher event, email courses@vitae.ac.uk.
  • Resource: The Research Information Network have put together a great booklet and web resources - Social Media: A guide for researchers (http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers).
  • Training resource: Want to integrate social media into your training or use it as a means for disseminating information to researchers? The post event resources from our good practice workshop in 2010 include a practical workbook full of tips and tricks www.vitae.ac.uk/integrating2010.

Public engagement:

  • Course: The engaging researcher.
  • Resource: Our Engaging researcher booklet has practical tips for getting started in public engagement including advice on public speaking, communication strategies and ways to get involved.
  • Resource: The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) has a number of toolkits to support researchers in their public engagement activities including guides, funding opportunities, access to experts and inspirational case studies.
  • Resource: Vitae has a web page devoted to the public engagement enlisting practical information on ways to get involved.
  • Resource: Dee-Ann Johnson (The University of Manchester) has kindly produced a comprehensive list of resources and opportunities in public engagement for Vitae.
  • Resource: If you want to find out what distinguishes the most successful PE researchers, Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement and Vitae North West Hub have prepared a great website showcasing learning journeys from the award winners of the Beacon for Public Engagement awards.
  • Many researchers have shared their experiences of public engagement on the Vitae public engagement blog.

Employability

  • Course: Employability is the theme of the 8th Annual PRISM conference for medical and bioscience postgraduates (www.vitae.ac.uk/prism2011).
  • Resource: Vitae's skills and competencies leaflet shows the skills wanted by employers and how researchers have developed them (www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/Researcher%20Skills_2010.pdf).
  • Resource: PGR tips is a monthly publication featuring tips and tricks for researchers. Recent issues related to employability include preparing for interviews, articulating your skills and new this week is preparing effective CVs (www.vitae.ac.uk/pgrtips).
  • Resource: The extensive careers section of the Vitae website contains a wealth of information related to employability (www.vitae.ac.uk/careers).
  • Training resource: Freely downloadable training programmes include ‘Managing your academic career', ‘Careers in academia' and ‘Broadening Horizons' (www.vitae.ac.uk/resources).
  • Resource: Want to know if an academic career is for you? Check out the new website from the University of Manchester (http://www.manchester.ac.uk/academiccareer)