Doctoral School

How do I make a booking or join a waiting list?

Option 1: Confirmed researcher development events by date - all the events for which we have confirmed a date, so you can see what's coming up. You can see how many places are available on each event, and book one for yourself. If an event is fully booked, add yourself to the waiting list for the next time the session runs.
Option 2: All researcher development events - all the events that we run, including those with no confirmed date. If we haven't yet confirmed a date for a particular event, you can join the waiting list.

What's in it for me?

You'll gain and refine skills that will help you with your research: making it easier and faster for you to conduct your research successfully. The programme consists of a range of options, and you choose the activities that are right for you, at each stage of your research journey. Most skills are transferable, and will be of benefit to you (and your employer) in the next stage of your career, whether you find yourself in academia, the private sector, the public sector, the third sector - anywhere.

How do I decide which activities are right for me?

  1. Check out the Researcher Development Framework (RDF), which lists the skills, experience and attributes of excellent researchers. Remember that you'll acquire and improve on these skills during the course of your research - you don't need to do it all right now!
  2. Review your goals, maybe talk them through with your supervisor. Decide what you want to achieve, set a realistic plan with milestones, and make sure you have access to the resources you'll need to achieve them.
  3. Now you know what you need to do, you can identify the skills and training you need to achieve your goals. Select the appropriate activities from the E-Learning resources, or the All Events list, to book or join a waiting list.

What does the Researcher Development Programme provide?

The Doctoral School coordinates the researcher development programme, and the events and opportunities are delivered by the units that have the appopriate expertise. (Library, Careers & Employability Centre, Teaching and Learning Development Unit, and more).

Activities cater for all levels of skill and experience, for those new to doctoral research, to those with considerable post-doctoral experience. Some activities are modified for discipline clusters (Arts & Humanities / Social Sciences / Sciences) and many are repeated throughout the year. We respond to demand as much as possible, so please make full use of the waiting lists.

This list illustrates just some examples of the opportunities in the researcher development programme, and presents them broadly by Domains of the Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

  • A Knowledge & Intellectual abilities: SPSS, UNIX, Matlab, NVivo, Zotero, Wordpress, Evernote, Scrivener, Writing your thesis in Word, Literature review, Writing your thesis in Scrivener, Creativity in academic writing;
  • B Personal Effectiveness: Profolio programme, Becoming an effective researcher, Managing your supervisor and professional relationships, Personal effectiveness, Career management, Applications and CVs, Preparing for your final year;
  • C Research Governance & Organisation: Research ethics and integrity, Getting published, Winning research funding (for research staff), Getting research funded (for early career researchers), Preparing for the Viva;
  • D Engagement, Influence & Impact: Presenting at conferences, Public engagement, Peer review, Media skills, Research impact & bibliometrics, Preparing a paper for publication, Poster presentations, Personal web pages, Open access publishing, Communicating research to non-specialists.
  • The Doctoral School Researcher Mentoring programme provides coverage of multiple domains, and these will vary depending on whether you are taking part as a mentee (doctoral researchers), or a mentor (research staff).