All Graduate School of Life Sciences courses

Your lab notebook is one of the most important and precious objects you, as a scientist, will ever have. This course will explore how keeping an exemplary laboratory notebook is crucial to good scientific practice in lab research. The course will consist of a short talk, a chance to assess some examples of good and bad practice, with plenty of time for questions and discussion. You might like to bring along your own lab notebook for feedback. (Please note that issues relating to protection of Intellectual Property Rights will not be covered in this course).

A highly participative session including group and individual work. To help build your confidence when networking in-person; looking at preparation, who to approach, how to start and finish any conversations well and manage post event contact.

A participative online session including group and individual work, enabling you to feel more confident when online networking; looking at how if differs to in-person networking and what this means your approach and thoughts about it.

This full-day course takes an evidence-based approach to writing academic papers. Participants learn that publishing is a game and this course will help them win it. It is designed to maximise the number of papers from a research project, make the process of writing the paper as efficient as possible, reduce the chances of co-authors and supervisors making unnecessary changes in the late stages of preparation and fosters collaboration between researchers. The course is highly interactive and participants not only learn from each other, they will, by the end of the day, be well on their way to completing a paper for a particular journal. They effectively learn to market themselves and their departments as well as learn about the process of writing. Past attendees have said the approach is fun. Originally developed for clinicians the course is relevant to all researchers, irrespective of their discipline.

Olivia Timbs is the organiser and trainer. She is a regular tutor for The Guardian Masterclasses programme running this course and another on effective writing.

The course takes an evidence-based approach to writing. Participants will learn that publishing is a game and the more they understand the rules of the game the higher their chances of becoming publishing authors. They will learn that writing an academic article and getting it published may help with their careers but it does not make them better researchers, or cleverer than they were before their paper was accepted; it simply means they have played the game well.

Suitable for GSLS postgraduates in any discipline who are keen to learn how to write academic papers and articles efficiently as well as more established researchers who have had papers rejected and are not really sure why.

If you want a better chance of your name on a paper, this is for you!

Trainer

Olivia Timbs is an award-winning editor and journalist with over 30 years' experience gained from working on national newspapers and for a range of specialist health and medical journals.

This day-long training course consists of a mixture of taught and interactive practical elements intended to show participants how to get the best out of Twitter for research purposes.

Please note that this course requires you to have an existing working knowledge of Twitter. In order to apply you must fill in an application form available at the following address

https://cambridge.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/come-fly-with-me-application-form

A one-day workshop to introduce and practice skills needed for innovative working relationships with business. This is a workshop full of discussion and activity around the practical implementation of the following:

The learning aims are.

• An insight into UK plc expectations following the 2012 Wilson report
• Project management skills that turn an idea into a reality
• Technical skills that test scientific and commercial project viability
• Behavioural skills that build and maintain relationships

Participants will learn about:

• The changing landscape of UK and European funding
• The UK’s drive towards business – academic collaborations
• Expectations from industry. Differences and similarities to academia
• How to manage academic – business differences
• Core project management techniques including: Project Initiation documents; Impact measurement; Risk management; Project tracking and reporting
• Effective working in complex teams including: Creating team buy in; Managing and sharing your knowledge; Communications skills

Provides an understanding of the UK and European landscape for researchers in the context of future careers and collaborations with industry. Also valuable for academics looking for a career move into industry. Provides an insight into what innovation really means and introduces the practical project management tools to implement innovative projects.

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Join Sarah Cruise, a human communication expert, for two hours to explore the core skills of communicating effectively to engage with any audience. This workshop has been designed to cover various communication theories with illustrative demonstrations and practical exercises. Although this will be options should you not be able to take part. During this time you will cover: • the fundamentals of all good communication • two simple ways to enhance your own personal impact • tools for collating and structuring engaging and accessible content • guidance for creating effective visuals • and a model for handling interactive communications

You can find out more about Sarah on her website eloquential.co.uk and if you have any questions, accessibility issues or anything else you’d like to discuss prior to the workshop, you can contact her on sarah@eloquential.co.uk

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There are some key working relationships that require development and management throughout the course of a Ph.D. If this is discussed and understood at the earliest opportunity students can be proactive in managing such relationships, enhance transferable skills and have a better research experience.

Your final year is an exciting, yet unsettling time. You need to finish experiments, start to write your thesis and begin to think about the next chapter of your career. This two-day linked workshop is designed to help you make sense of the year ahead.

You will be given practical tips on planning your final year, as well as discuss the administration of your final year, writing your thesis and preparation for your viva. In addition, you will explore the career opportunities that are best suited to you, by thinking about your expertise, suitability and personal values. Finally, you will get the chance to review your C.V and experience the interview process.

This session discusses the benefits and challenges of maintaining an online presence as a researcher. Part of two sessions on this topic, this first session looks at setting up your academic persona and using academic platforms. Starting with exploring what comes up through a quick Google search all the way through to maintaining profiles on academic sites, we will look at the pros and cons of online engagement. This will include tools such as ORCID, and networking sites such as academia.edu and ResearchGate.

Participants should expect to have the opportunity to critically evaluate the various options presented in this session with the overall aim of being better informed when deciding where to invest their time and efforts when building an academic presence online.

This session discusses the benefits and challenges of maintaining an online presence as a researcher. Part of two sessions on this topic, this second session looks at using social media as a researcher. We will look at the practicalities and pros and cons of online engagement through tools such as Twitter/X, Mastodon, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Participants should expect to have the opportunity to critically evaluate the various options presented in this session with the overall aim of being better informed when deciding where to invest their time and efforts when building an academic presence online.

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The Graduate School of Life Sciences' main showcase in the Univeristy of Cambridge Science Festival for the public understanding of our research. It includes a competition for the best photograph or image from your research. Full rules and regulations are available online. You do not need to book a place for this aspect of the competition, just submit your image as described in the rules and regulations.

The Graduate School of Life Sciences' main showcase in the Univeristy of Cambridge Science Festival for the public understanding of our research. It includes a competition for the best poster concisely conveying a single message to the general public. You must book a place to ensure that your work is accepted.

The Graduate School of Life Sciences' main showcase in the Univeristy of Cambridge Science Festival for the public understanding of our research. It includes a competition for the best research poster, live dialogue and communicating your own research to the general public. You must book a place to ensure that your work is accepted.

Clear, effective and professional communication skills are absolutely essential to any aspiring academic. While students are taught the essentials of how to research, less emphasis is placed on how to present their work either in the lecture hall, in the seminar room or even the viva. This course is unique in that it fuses academic skills with acting training.

This course has been designed to help graduates students and ECRs to develop their understanding of available tools and techniques which can aid with problem solving and innovation in a research-intensive environment.

An introductory workshop for 1st year PhD students to explore the working relationships you will encounter during your PhD with emphasis on how to work well with your supervisor.

This whole day session is designed to help researchers develop strategies for making networking part of a successful career, whether inside or outside of research. It focuses on thinking about all of the researchers' working life as a route to networking, rather than being a course about "personal impact" in conference coffee breaks.

This workshop, led by Understanding Animal Research, outlines the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research and provides advice and practical information on how best to talk about the use of animals in your research.

Academics can make as much of an impact from what they say as what they write whether it be through teaching, conferences or job presentations. Working with a trained actor and an academic, this workshop will take participants through the process of how to write and deliver a speech.

In the first session you will cover how to structure a speech, the use of appropriate language and imagery, audio-visual aids and how to master the Q&A.

In the second session, we will focus on your performance. Drawing on acting techniques, participants will discover how to improve their diction, resonance, range and articulation as well as relaxation and breathing techniques to calm nerves.

This workshop is designed for PhDs and Postdocs at any stage of their academic career.