Category: Training

Publishing and Research Impact workshops

Taylor and Francis have organised two workshops on the 28 January on the topic of Publishing and Research Impact, aimed at Early Career Researchers and final year of study researchers in the Arts and Humanities. The workshops are being run in collaboration with impact professionals at the University of Reading, UK.

The workshops are open to global participants (sessions at 8am and 4pm GMT to try and be as inclusive as possible). For more information and to register your interest, please see their website found here.

Adapting to change: panel session and workshop coming in January

Research plans often change as a PhD progresses, but this year the coronavirus pandemic has caused havoc with everybody’s research projects. Doctoral students are facing disruption and delays to research, data collection and fieldwork, alongside coping with the impact of the pandemic itself.

Being flexible in your plans – adapting to change as it happens – is a useful trait for all researchers to develop. In January we’re hosting a series of online events to help you learn to adapt, develop a plan B, and overcome any obstacles that come your way, whether they’re Covid-related or otherwise.

Covid-19 and field research: interruptions, challenges and responses
Thursday 21 January, 11.00 – 12.30
Book a place via Sussex Direct
In this knowledge-sharing panel session, three Sussex PhD researchers and their supervisors will discuss the challenges they faced in 2020, and the different approaches they took to tackle the issues, adapt their projects and continue with their fieldwork. 

How to adapt your PhD in a pandemic: mapping alternative routes to completion
Tuesday 26 January, 14.00 – 16.00
Book your place via Sussex Direct
Flexibility and adaptation are key skills for doctoral researchers. In this practical and interactive webinar, Dr Catherine Pope will get you back on track. We’ll clarify your aims, map out some alternative routes, and create an achievable plan B. By the end of the session you’ll have the confidence and clarity you need to take the next steps towards finishing your thesis.

We’re also planning a series of blogposts and case studies highlighting specific research projects and how different methods can be amended. If you’ve adapted your research project for any reason we’d love to hear from you – get in touch researcher-development@sussex.ac.uk.

Call for applications: British Library PhD placement scheme

A man and woman studying a large bound volume of artworks on an archival block. Image: British Library

Current PhD students are invited to apply to the British Library PhD Placement Scheme.

Placement projects are offered from a variety of areas across the Library, from art collections, cataloguing and community engagement to digital preservation and climate policy.

Placements are for 3 months or part-time equivalent, to be undertaken from May 2021 onwards (unless indicated otherwise). Some projects are suitable for partial or full remote working.

A list of all available placement projects and full details of how to apply are available on the British Library website.

The deadline for applications is 17.00 (GMT) on Friday 18 December.

Get paid tutoring and public engagement experience with the Brilliant Club

A teacher stands at the front of a classroom.

The Brilliant Club is a charity working to widen participation in higher education by putting university researchers into schools.

Its Scholars Programme offers doctoral and early career researchers a meaningful, paid professional development opportunity, delivering university-style tutorials to small groups of pupils in non-selective state schools.

Researchers design and deliver sessions based on their own research for pupils 13 and above, or deliver a pre-designed programme for younger pupils pitched at the appropriate level. A weekend of pedagogical training is provided to all tutors. The next application deadline is 30 November.

Why apply?

  • Get expert training and real experience to develop your teaching
  • Gain valuable public engagement experience
  • Communicate your research to a non-specialist audience
  • Boost your employability with transferable skills
  • Support local pupils from underrepresented backgrounds to access university
  • Join a nationwide network of like-minded researchers making an impact on university access
  • Earn £500 per placement

See the Scholars Programme webpages for further information, including the application form, and email apply@thebrilliantclub.org if you have any questions.

Logo for the Brilliant Club Scholars Programme.

PhD Careers: free social sciences Business Boost Bitesize workshops from University of Surrey

If you’re a social sciences researcher and you’re interested in working with industry, sign up to these free workshops from the University of Surrey using the links below.

Business Boost 2020 is an ESRC-funded scheme to increase business engagement among social sciences doctoral and early career researchers at SeNSS universities. For more about Business Boost activities at Sussex, including work placements with local businesses, contact Mary Harris m.f.harris@sussex.ac.uk and follow @BizBoostSussex on Twitter.

Knowledge Exchange – Importance of Industry Engagement
Tuesday 24 November, 09.30 – 10.30
Book your place

With Jenny Ritchie, Senior Business Manager, and Dan Bance, Business Manager, Enterprise Programmes Innovation

This event will look at the benefits of ECR & PGR engagement with industry such as research validation and research application to solve real-world problems. Facilitated by the University of Surrey’s Business Enterprise Programmes Team, and supported by Senior Academics and ECRs, participants will gain insights into Knowledge Exchange, and the benefits of industry engagement to the academic, the institution and the company. The briefing will provide a top-level overview of various ways to engage and offer ideas on how to initiate or further develop industry relationships.

Writing with Impact for Professional Audiences
Monday 30 November, 11.00 – 13.30
Book your place

Facilitators: Dr Alison Yeung Yam Wah, Academic Writing Consultant, Purely Academic Ltd, and Dr Nadya Yakovchuk, Teaching Fellow in Academic Writing, Doctoral College, University of Surrey

The aim of this online workshop is to equip participants with valuable writing strategies for producing impactful text for professional and business audiences. In this highly interactive session, we will analyse social science-related professional/trade magazines to highlight some of the key differences between writing academic and professional texts, and to identify strategies used in professional writing to ensure that text is impactful. To maximise interaction, participants will be encouraged to discuss questions relating to three main themes: Motivations, Drafting and Writing for the Genre. The session will be structured around a balanced blend of input in the form of dialogue between the two facilitators, break-out room activities and individual tasks.

Experiences of Working with Businesses & Stakeholders
Wednesday 2 December, 13.30 – 15.00
Book your place

Panel discussion with Prof Bonnie Buchannan, Head of Finance and Accounting, Prof Sabine Benoit, Professor of Marketing, and Prof Glenn Parry, Co-Director DECaDE: Centre for the Decentralised Digital Economy and Surrey Business School Impact Lead. Facilitated by Prof Andy Adcroft, Deputy Dean of Surrey Business School and Director of SurreyIDEA.

Join us for an informal discussion with three of Surrey Business School’s academics with vast experience of working with businesses and stakeholders. Deputy Dean Andy Adcroft will be facilitating the discussion. We will be welcoming questions during the session via chat on Zoom with a live Q&A at the end. If you’d like a read before the session, Professor Sabine Benoit co-authored an article last year: ‘Bridging the data divide between practitioners and academics: Approaches to collaborating better to leverage each other’s resources’.

Digital Discovery Week 2020, 9-13 November

A logo for Digital Discovery Week 2020.

Digital Discovery Week (9-13 November) is a week of workshops, seminars and online opportunities to enable students and staff to experiment with new technologies, showcase examples of innovations in teaching and research at Sussex, and horizon-scan for emerging technologies which will impact our sector.

For doctoral researchers, it’s a chance to think about how technology can enhance your research, to try out new tools and techniques, and to make connections with academics and teams across the university. Now more than ever, digital skills can help you to work more effectively, keep up with the latest research and stay connected with the doctoral community.

The Library has put together a jam packed schedule of events, from seminars on open academic publishing, fake news and immersive storytelling, to practical workshops on podcasting, web scraping and teaching digital skills to students.

The Digital Database a Day sessions will introduce you to new resources – the Mass Observation Online social history archive (Monday 9th), ORBIS business database (Tuesday 10th), Westlaw for legal materials (Wednesday 11th) and SAGE Research Methods Online, which will help you through each stage of the research process (Thursday 12th).

Are you #TeamEndnote, #TeamMendeley or #TeamZotero? The Referencing Round Table (Tuesday 10th, 16.00-17.00) pits three researchers against each other as they reflect on their citation practices, answer your questions and battle for supremacy. These tools have the same basic features – managing and organising your references and generating citations and bibliographies – but they each have their own quirks and unique features. Which platform will triumph? Sign up to find out.

Raising your online profile is increasingly important if you’re looking to get your work noticed, you want to build networks or you’re aiming for a career in research. Building your digital profile in Elements (Thursday 12th, 11.00-12.00) will introduce the university’s new research information system, and show you how to edit your profile, auto-claim any existing publications and deposit accepted manuscripts. Sign up via Eventbrite.

And don’t forget the Digital Productivity for Doctoral Researchers bitesize course, running over five days from Monday. Join members of the Technology Enhanced Learning team as they show you tools and techniques to support your research and get you working more effectively and collaboratively. Explore each topic in your own time (this should only take around 30 minutes a day) then ask questions and join in discussions with TEL and your peers as you learn together. See blog for further details.

Free webinars: First year PhD researcher? Get started with the British Library

The King's Library displayed behind glass in the central atrium of the British Library. Photo: Paul Grundy

What’s the British Library? What’s in the collection? How can I find what I need? Join them for a series of online webinars to pick up the basics and find out how to kick off your research.

The British Library houses a wealth of resources for doctoral researchers, both digital and physical. In early 2021 they will be offering all first-year PhD researchers the opportunity to hear from their expert staff with a series of free online webinars, explaining the practicalities of using the Library and its services, with an increased focus on digital collections and resources.

The webinars will take place every Wednesday afternoon between 14 January and 3 March 2021, starting with a general introduction followed by events exploring more specific collection areas.

Attend the first module Getting Started: Researching at the British Library on 14 January, then book your place on any of the other modules that interest you. All modules are free to attend.

The complete programme, and links to register, can be found on the British Library website.

Conception X: Exciting opportunity for elite entrepreneurship training for Science PhD researchers

A black female student wearing lab coat and gloves adjusts an experiment in a University of Sussex science lab.

Do you want to tackle big industry challenges or launch a startup? Conception X empowers the brightest researchers to explore entrepreneurship as an exciting career choice during their PhD degree, training them to become venture scientists – researchers specifically trained in enterprise skills that address our future economies and societies.

The programme is designed to suit the demands of doctoral researchers, fitting in with your research schedule. Training is delivered over nine months (March-November 2021) and is based online with some events in London. There are two tracks – for those who are building startups, and those who want to develop skills in entrepreneurship.

The programme consists of five core elements:

● One-to-one Business and Technology Coaching
● Industry Challenges and Mentorship
● Deep Tech Entrepreneurial Training
● Show and Tell Sessions & Community Events
● Conception X Expert Network
● Plus: Finalist Demo Day

Who can apply?

To be eligible for the Conception X programme, researchers must:
● be registered at a university at the time of application as a PhD student;
● be working on an innovative technology based on their research;
● be able to commit to the full length of the programme.

For further details about the scheme see the Conception X website. Applications open on Wednesday 4 November – you can register your interest using this online form.

Digital productivity for doctoral researchers: five-day bitesize course from Technology Enhanced Learning

An overhead shot of a woman working with two connected computers and a laptop.

This short online course, running over five consecutive days from Monday 9th to Friday 13th November, is a chance to explore the tools that interest you and learn alongside other researchers, with Technology Enhanced Learning on hand to guide you.

Members of the TEL team will be on call to answer questions, contribute to discussions and try out things with you. It’s up to you when you engage with the course and how much time you spend on it, but you should be able to cover the basics in 30 minutes a day.

The course focuses on how digital technologies and services can support us to work in more efficient, dynamic and connected ways. Many of the approaches and tools you will explore can be used for personal/domestic activities as well as work and study.

The five days will cover:

  • Teamworking with Microsoft Teams
  • Communication and collaboration
  • Managing and organising tasks
  • Notemaking
  • Reflection, tips and tricks

Sign up via Sussex Direct by November 6th, when bookings will close.

TEL’s online bitesized courses are short, facilitated self-study courses. Each course is split into five ‘bitesize’ pieces – one a day Monday to Friday. Each day builds your understanding to give you a solid foundation. Members of the Technology Enhanced Learning team will be available throughout the course should you have any questions or wish to learn more about any of the topics.

IMPORTANT: Changes to the way UEA Online Training Series is booked

The banner for the UEA: University of East Anglia online training series, showing UEA university buildings and university logo.

The UEA Online Training Series, run by Dr Simon Watts, is open to all doctoral researchers at Sussex.

Due to exceptionally high competition for places, all sessions between 17 November and 26 January will be opened for bookings NEXT MONDAY 26 OCTOBER at 12 NOON.

Please remember that these workshops are repeated throughout the academic year. If you aren’t able to secure a place, there will be the opportunity to do so in the spring, and further dates are being added as demand dictates.

Please also be mindful of how useful each workshop is to your development at this point – it’s tempting to grab hold of every training opportunity going, but there is little value in attending a workshop on career prospects or academic publishing, for example, if you’ve just started your PhD!

The research methods modules and workshops on writing research proposals and securing a first academic post are also running exclusively for Sussex researchers; see the listings on the RDP website to book onto those.

If you’re still struggling to access a particular workshop, session recordings can be requested through the Training Series website as a last resort, and this is a great alternative for those who can’t book the live sessions. They will be delivered to you at three points throughout the year, see the website for further information.