Researcher Development Programme (RDP) course timetable

Learn how to create and deliver an effective presentation.

Most postgraduate researchers benefit from giving presentations about their research by gaining feedback, sharing their ideas and/or findings, and raising their profile in the research community. Therefore, learning how to present your research effectively is an important skill to develop during the course of your doctorate.

Research is increasingly collaborative and multidisciplinary, meaning that teamwork is critical. Teamwork is also frequently listed as one of the top skills employers are looking for when recruiting. However, most of the educational pathway, even as far as the PhD, is based on individual work and most early career researchers lack team working experience. In this session we will look at some of the theories and myths behind team working, and how a better understanding of yourself, including the recognition and acceptance of your strengths and weaknesses, can lead to you maximising your contribution in teams. We will also discuss the impact of remote working on teams.

This session will be delivered by Dr Geraint Wyn Story. Geraint is director of Cambridge Training Associates Ltd, who has worked with many organisations across the world to improve their team working. He is also an associate of Belbin Associates, which is an internationally recognised tool for improving team work. Geraint did his PhD in molecular plant biology in Cambridge, before managing a research team for a small biotech company. He then changed career direction and was the Researcher Development Consultant for the life sciences at Cambridge for six years before starting his own company in 2015.

Across all AHSS disciplines (and within) there are varying views of what research is. Though not a definitive means by which to conceptualize research, this course offers Thomas Kuhn’s idea of the ‘research paradigm’ as a heuristic and expedient entry point into key terms and concepts often encountered by research students and the tactic assumptions underpinning them. This can and often does result in an ability to understand the significance of one’s own research, the research of others and the broader intellectual context in which both are situated.

Are you curious to learn more about how to present your work and yourself professionally outside of academia by taking advantage of the online available resources? This training will focus on professional ‘branding’ outside of academia. First, it will introduce the importance of presenting yourself and your ideas in the right way to the stakeholders you are interested in connecting with professionally. The session will then delve into how to present your skills and your experience to position yourself credibly in a relevant field, whether on LinkedIn, through your CV and bio, or by ‘online’ networking.

The training will be led by Dr Maja Spanu. Maja is an Affiliated Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Cambridge. She has extensive international experience working in research & analysis and training & teaching in higher education, policy and cultural philanthropy. Working with universities and research institutions across Europe, she regularly delivers career trainings & advice to researchers and university staff seeking to professionalise outside of academia, make their work policy-relevant or enhance their social impact in meaningful and creative ways.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

The time has come to start writing your thesis, but you may still be in the lab finishing experiments and/or writing papers for publication. How are you going to start writing your thesis and submit on time?

This ‘hands on’ session focuses on helping you plan and start to write your thesis. During the first part of the session, we will introduce techniques to help you with that planning and the remaining time you will have the opportunity to work on your thesis and write.

This course seeks to help students develop their critical reading skills, and to deploy tactics and strategies that can accelerate the process of literature-based research without sacrificing detail and depth necessary for a doctoral thesis.

The course is aimed at first year students, but all are welcome.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings and interviews? Do you have a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you refine your presentation skills, help you speak more confidently as an emerging leader in your research field, and develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

Constructive feedback will give you insight into your speaking style, how you come across to others, and how well your ideas are communicated. Coaching will focus on your individual requirements ranging from practical points about elocution and vocal projection, to holding the attention of a room, to structuring a compelling presentation.

This one-hour training will focus on Public Engagement and Policy. It will introduce the policy sector, the main types of stakeholders involved and their expectations when engaging with researchers. We will then delve into the available forms of collaboration for early and mid-career researchers, focusing on general outreach and impact strategies that researchers and university professionals can develop. The final part of the training will be dedicated to identifying the skills and competences needed, and practical tips to immediately start your policy engagement.

This training will be led by Dr. Maja Spanu, Research Fellow and Affiliated Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Studies, in Cambridge, and postdoc lead for Humanities and Social Science for the University’s Public Engagement Advisory Group.

Capturing your audience’s attention and keeping it is vital for any type of public engagement. Having a good story to tell and then telling it in a compelling way enables you to connect with a wide audience. This module takes you through the art and science of storytelling: exploring attention and motivation, dramatic structure, rhetorical devices, visual enhancements, and peripheral influences so that you can craft your own engaging story.

The course will be led by Sarah Cruise. Sarah is passionate about the art and science of communication and eloquential is her rattle bag of knowledge, skills and experience which she uses to train, coach and facilitate. Sarah collects research from areas such as psychology and neuroscience, along with practitioners experience from the performing arts to fill her bag of tricks, tips and advice. Sarah has been involved in public engagement training since 2006, working closely with Cambridge University. She is also a peripatetic teacher of communication and performance skills in schools and a co-presenter on the Gin & Topic podcast.

Join Natacha Wilson, from Cambridge Insights, to find out more about project management techniques and approaches which can help you manage your research project in the midst of a pandemic. We will explore how to assess your project's health and ways to stay on track, manage expectations and mitigate external risks. The session will include a short presentation, followed by a Q&A.

This is the first of two workshops designed to develop your understanding of the technicalities and the process of getting your research published.

In this workshop, we examine the technical aspects of writing up your research in a format appropriate for publication. You will learn about the importance of following journal guidelines and house style, and the value of using a clear structure to frame your paper. You will also receive guidance on how to produce clear writing in a register appropriate for the readership.

It is possible to attend this course as an individual workshop, although we would encourage you to attend the second workshop in the series Getting published II: Impact and Peer-review.

Please note: The course does not offer bespoke or 1-1 support for manuscript preparation.

Join experienced public engagement consultant Steve Cross to take your ideas for public engagement to the next level, and get all the skills you need to make them real. This session will help you to create projects that matter to your research and the people affected by it. You’ll then have assistance in developing their practical aspects, thinking through their messaging, funding and delivery.

Research in the 21st century is global, and research teams are intercultural. 35% of Cambridge research students are from outside the EU; and postdocs are the most diverse group by nationality, representing almost 100 countries. This diversity is one of the University’s biggest strengths. Yet intercultural communication is not without its pitfalls and misunderstandings. It takes conscious discipline to think about one’s own cultural assumptions and to try to make sense of others'.

This two hour workshop will give you some tools to help identify where national culture might be having an influence on your professional and social interactions, where common misunderstandings can occur, and how to address potential challenges, especially when the majority of it is now happening online. The content of the session is informed by research form intercultural studies and refers to culture as a framework of shared values, attitudes and behaviours. It explores the nature of generalisations and the relationship between culture and personal values.

Capturing your audience’s attention and keeping it is vital for any type of public engagement. Having a good story to tell and then telling it in a compelling way enables you to connect with a wide audience. This module takes you through the art and science of storytelling: exploring attention and motivation, dramatic structure, rhetorical devices, visual enhancements, and peripheral influences so that you can craft your own engaging story.

The course will be led by Sarah Cruise. Sarah is passionate about the art and science of communication and eloquential is her rattle bag of knowledge, skills and experience which she uses to train, coach and facilitate. Sarah collects research from areas such as psychology and neuroscience, along with practitioners experience from the performing arts to fill her bag of tricks, tips and advice. Sarah has been involved in public engagement training since 2006, working closely with Cambridge University. She is also a peripatetic teacher of communication and performance skills in schools and a co-presenter on the Gin & Topic podcast.

Successful engagement with the public can benefit research, researchers and the public – but how do you go about demonstrating this change? Evaluation of engagement doesn’t just help us demonstrate the value of our PE initiatives but can help bring us closer to our audiences by giving the public a strong clear voice. This workshop will guide you through the best evaluation processes showing you When, Why and crucially How to use evaluation to give you reliable and clear data. Join this course to learn how to:

• Demonstrate success to funders;
• Record Impact for REF;
• Improve your processes;
• Have a better understanding of the people you are connecting with.

The group session will be followed by the opportunity for a one-to-one 15-minute session with the trainer where you can discuss your projects, ideas and questions and get project specific help.

This course will be led by Jamie Gallagher. Jamie is an award-winning freelance science communicator and engagement professional. He has delivered training around the world, from the skyscrapers of Hong Kong to tents in the African bush. Having had four years’ experience as the central PE lead for the University of Glasgow he has worked on improving the reach, profile and impact of research engagement in almost every academic discipline. Specialising in evaluation Jamie provides consultancy services to charities and universities helping them to demonstrate their impact and understand their audiences and stakeholders. Jamie is also an associate editor of the Research for All journal. He was named as one of the “100 leading practising scientists in the UK” by the Science Council and as one of the “175 Faces of Chemistry” by the Royal Society of Chemistry. He won the International 3 Minute Thesis Competition and Famelab Scotland. www.jamiebgall.co.uk @jamiebgall