About this Series
This is a practical, action-oriented programme which can be run over a short period of three consecutive sessions (online) of 2.5 hrs each, or over a longer period with events at the beginning, middle and end of a development programme, face to face. It is devised to run in teams so delegates need to attend all events, and be available to work together for the full series in the interim periods.
Rationale
A research career depends on more than excellent research – that’s just the starting point. You need to make progress now on other fronts too: contacts, profile, credible experience, demonstrating skills, and more. But that can be hard when you’re already busy.
The Point
- Urgent tasks and anxieties take up most of our time and energy.
- Important longer term goals seem too abstract and too far-off for action today.
- When the future arrives though, we know we could have done more today that we didn’t get around to doing. And the people who succeed seem somehow to have managed to do that already.
What small things could you be doing today, well before that future arrives, to build your path? You may not know what to focus on, or how to make it happen, or who to engage with. Making progress on distant, uncertain goals is difficult – especially when it’s only ourselves who are involved.
Where this comes from
Research Councils occasionally fund an extra year to commended PhD students to foster tomorrow’s Research Leaders (such as the EPSRC Doctoral Prize). Those people face a problem: how to transition to building a research profile as research leaders…when they are preoccupied with their current daily research project. We developed this team programme for that prize research leadership series (where it runs over several months). ”Becoming a Star Researcher” is not associated with that doctoral prize, but is a condensed version of this programme that we developed, to boost your progress towards long term goals, and put you ahead. It is three, 2.5 hr online events running over a minimum of three weeks. There’s no time commitment other than the three online sessions – anything else you undertake is important to you anyway.
“… the role I’m applying for puts a lot of emphasis on the ability to organise and lead groups and I feel as though the course you ran gave me an excellent opportunity to exercise these skills, particularly with working with a group over a prolonged period and keeping on top of organising meetings and such. Also, the opportunity that you gave me to chair the virtual conference/Q&A at the end of the course was one I really enjoyed and I’ve added this to my CV! “ Doctoral Prize participant, PDRA at Sheffield
What you gain
Teams, research leadership, making your own progress
We’ll touch on leadership, progressing action and teams, opportunity creation, and handling risks within a framework to help lift your sights and take you further. If you have attended any of our “Secrets of Researcher Success” series (Thinking, Organising Yourself, People, Decisions) then this is a practical action-oriented chance to put what you have learnt into practice too. However the main focus is on progressing what matters to you, but within a team striving to make the most collective progress on their individual goals – like being the staff responsible for your own research group
This Series is offered as 3 online 2.5hr sessions for 50 delegates, or as 2 or ideally 3 separate days face to face at the beginning , middle, and end of a longer programme of up to 12 months, for 25 delegates.
Skill Development
This event is suitable for Postgraduate Researchers at any stage of their research, and offers the opportunity to gain skills across these domains:
- Personal effectiveness: Personal Qualities, Self Management, Professional and Career Development
- Research Governance and Organisation: Professional conduct, Research Management, Finance funding and resources
- Engagement, influence and impact: Working with others, Communication and dissemination, Engagement and Impact
