Postdocs RD Programme 2025-2026

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

About this session

Would you like to be more productive with your work in a shorter period of time?

This workshop empowers researchers to optimise their productivity during short research or study periods. We will address common reasons for procrastination and learn techniques to break down larger tasks into manageable steps.

You will develop a personalised action plan integrating High Intensity Productivity (HIP) principles with focused goal-setting strategies. During the session, you will have time to trial HIP and reflect on applying your learning to seize future opportunities and overcome procrastination.

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• set realistic goals for short periods of research, teaching prep, administrative tasks, or study sessions
• identify optimal scenarios for utilising HIP techniques
• apply HIP techniques during protected practice time to achieve immediate, demonstrable progress.

Participants must bring a short piece of work they would like to spend 30mins progressing – this could be a paper to read, a document to edit, some data to analyse, or even something from their life outside of their research that requires attention.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

About this session

This short, interactive workshop will introduce you to practical tools that will help you test and refine how you are articulating your research vision.

We will not generate ideas for new research projects in the session but, rather, explore what makes a potential research topic compelling. We will also explore how you can assess whether your ideas add up to a vision that is bold, exciting, coherent, and – hopefully – fundable.

This session would benefit researchers at the initial stages of developing a proposal for funding, and may work well as preparation for one of our sessions on Writing Fellowship Grants with Impact.

We will not review specific funding schemes or application materials in this workshop.

This session runs multiple times per year. If no future sessions are listed and you would like to be notified when these become available, please add yourself to the waitlist or register your interest.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

About this session

Do you find it difficult to stay on track in the pursuit of your career aspirations? Or would you like to improve your ability to set achievable goals? This session will give you protected time, space and support to develop your goals in a friendly and constructive environment.

Participants will have the option to work independently on developing their goals or to join breakout rooms in which you can discuss your goals with your peers. The facilitator will be available to offer feedback and guidance where needed on a one-to-one basis during the session.

This session is intended for those already familiar with the SMART goal-setting technique. If you are not familiar with this technique, please watch this short video for a brief introduction before joining the session.

This session runs multiple times per year. If no future sessions are listed and you would like to be notified when these become available, please add yourself to the waitlist or register your interest.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

About this session

This workshop will introduce you to a range of core project management principles which you can apply within your research projects to more effectively plan and monitor your activities.

In this 3-hour online session, you will:

• examine how to define the scope of a research project, including the delivery of outputs, impact and knowledge exchange
• discuss how to engage and manage the expectations of stakeholders to enable smooth project delivery
• explore how your planning and monitoring of research projects is shaped by your methodologies and the expectations of funders
• learn to use key planning, risk management and monitoring tools to effectively manage research projects
• identify your own challenges in managing research projects and discuss ways to overcome them.

This session runs multiple times per year. If no future sessions are listed and you would like to be notified when these become available, please add yourself to the waitlist or register your interest.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

About this session

Whether you're aiming for academic success, exploring non-academic careers, or curious about commercialisation of your research, join this workshop to discover how entrepreneurial thinking and core business skills can strengthen your research proposals and expand your career options.

Funders of academic research and employers of researchers are increasingly valuing individuals with entrepreneurial spirit and a broader set of skills that can be applied to innovate and create impact from research, turning ideas into action.

This mindset encourages you to focus early on real-world problems and engage potential stakeholders and collaborators to make your work relevant and impactful in a wider context. This puts you at an advantage when applying for permanent academic positions, securing research funding, looking to transition to industry, or pursuing commercialisation opportunities.

Whether your future is academic or not, an entrepreneurial mind and skillset travels with you.

This interactive session will introduce you to:

• what an entrepreneurial mindset is and how every researcher can adopt and develop this to pursue their career interests
• the frameworks and tools that are used in the startup world to create compelling business opportunities
• how you can use business-inspired tools to develop a relevant and impactful research vision that stands out in a competitive funding landscape
• how to create your personal "elevator pitch" to connect with collaborators, funders and future employers, and maximise opportunities.

You will have the opportunity to develop your business-style pitch (problem, solution, impact) and practice it among peers.

This session runs multiple times per year. If no future sessions are listed and you would like to be notified when these become available, please add yourself to the waitlist or register your interest.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

About this session

Our core values define what is most important to us, but few of us spend time consciously exploring these.

Understanding whether our goals, aspirations, decisions and actions align with our values can help us to identify what motivates us. This can also help us understand when and why we experience joy or frustration in our day-to-day lives.

In this interactive virtual workshop, you will be given time and space to:

• reflect on your personal values and what is important to you
• consider how you can better satisfy these values in your work and personal life
• support (and receive support from) your peers.

This session runs multiple times per year. If no future sessions are listed and you would like to be notified when these become available, please add yourself to the waitlist or register your interest.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

About this session

Design Thinking is a widely used framework to generate creative solutions to intractable human-centered problems. By placing stakeholder needs at the heart of the process, it can help us to better understand people and problems in order to ensure better research outcomes and lasting change.

Design Thinking for Researchers is an intellectually stimulating, interactive workshop. Playful and generative in nature, we will use real-world case studies to help develop your understanding of this process and its value.

By learning and applying Design Thinking principles, you will be developing a practical skill set that has a huge range of potential applications. It will change how you think about stakeholders and grow your confidence to take on new challenges.

By the end of this session, you will:

• be familiar with the key principles of Design Thinking
• have gained a practical understanding of how to apply Design Thinking approaches to real-world problems
• be equipped with a creative toolkit for building impactful working relationships with internal and external partners.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.