PhD Research Student Development Programme - Upcoming events

Friday 4 December 2009

Junk the Jargon - Win £500 for 3 minutes' work!

Can you communicate your research topic to a broad audience in 3 minutes?

Can you make it interesting, engaging and fun?

Do you want to win £500?!


If you think so, you should enter “Junk the Jargon”, a new competition for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at Queen Mary.


A competition will be held in each Graduate School in January (details below), and successful participants will go through to the final, held on Wednesday 27th January, from 5pm. Anyone not participating in the competition is encouraged to come and watch and support the finalists. A drinks reception will be held afterwards.


The final will be judged by a panel of experts, including Prof. Sue Hartley, who is giving the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures this year, and Dr Tiffany Jenkins, Arts & Society director at the Insitute of Ideas (www.instituteofideas.com). Prizes of £500, £250 and £100 will be awarded for the top three presentations.


You can view videos from a similar, national competition (Famelab) to get an idea of what you can do in 3 minutes: Here and here.

If you have any questions, please e-mail Jo Cordy in ESD.


Details of your Graduate School’s heat:


Science & Engineering: Wednesday 13th Jan, 5pm in Peoples Palace lecture theatre 1.

Humanities & Social Sciences: Wednesday 13th Jan, 4:15pm, location TBC


School of Medicine & Dentistry: Wednesday 20th Jan, Perrin lecture theatre, time TBC



Look out for e-mails with more details of the competition in the near future!


Tuesday 1 December 2009

Graduate Entry Medicine - a chance to find out more

You may well be looking at this thinking "I've already got a degree and am halfway to getting a PhD. Why on earth would I want to spend even more time in education?!", but I do have a few friends who decided, post-PhD, to take on a medical degree, so I thought I'd draw your attention to this event in case it's something you were thinking about!

The University of London Careers Group are running a day called "Exploring Graduate Entry into Medicine" on 19th Feb next year. During the day you can find out about:
  • Specific degrees, by talking to admissions staff, course organisers and medical students
  • The major differences between the courses offered
  • How to fund your medical degree
  • Writing a successful application form and support statement
  • The various entrance exams schools use.
The course is open for booking now, and more details can be found here.

Thursday 12 November 2009

The Researcher development framework consultation - Have your say!

Many of you are probably familiar with, or have at least heard of, the Joint Skills Statement, produced by the UK Research Councils in 2001 to outline the skills that PhD students would be expected to demonstrate or develop during their research training. This document is now undergoing a major review, and is likely to be renamed "The Researcher Development Framework". This document will not only cover the skills a researcher should gain during a doctoral degree, but will be widened to include a longer period of the research career and will also describe skills, knowledge, behaviours, qualities and attitudes.

At the moment this document is in a consultation period, and Vitae, who are managing the project, are very keen to hear the views of as many researchers as possible on the proposed framework. Details of the document and the consultation can be found here. There is a special set of questions for individual researchers to respond the the consultation.

The deadline for responses is 11th December, and I would encourage anyone to have a look at the proposed framework and voice your opinion on the questionnaire. Once the document is finalised it will have a strong influence on the way institutions support researchers and on the way researchers are viewed by employers, so it is important that Vitae get it right, and that it reflects the views of the researchers themselves.

Monday 19 October 2009

What are you getting from your PhD?

A new publication from Vitae, aimed at employers, lists the skills and competencies that PhD graduates bring to an organisation. It details skills that researchers typically develop, against the competencies that employers often look for, and also contains examples from researchers of when and how they demonstrated the various skills.

This document is not only a tool for employers trying to decide whether to hire PhD graduates, but it is also a useful resource for PhD students, whether or not you are thinking of applying for jobs in the near future. Hopefully the list of skills and real life examples will get you thinking about the skills that you are developing through your PhD, what skills you might want to develop, and how you can sell these skills to employers on application forms and at interviews when the time comes.

And that reminds me, there are a few places still available on the ESD workshop "Making Successful Job Applications"on Thursday 5th November, 10am-1pm. If you're interested see the calendar in the side bar for more information.

Friday 2 October 2009

Welcome to Queen Mary!

If you've just started your PhD at Queen Mary, then welcome to the University, and welcome to this blog! I hope you have a great few years here. If you're not a new student, then welcome to the new academic year - I hope you managed to get a bit of a break over the summer and are looking forward to getting back to your research!

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jo, the Development Adviser for Research Students at QM. There's a bit more info. about me and my background in the side panel. I'll be using this blog to keep QM research students informed of events going on inside and outside the college that might be of interest to you, so please check in regularly or set up an RSS feed. You might also want to look at the QM Researchers' Careers blog (see the feed on the side panel).

Also on this blog is a calendar of workshops and courses run for PhD students by the Educational & Staff Development department. You can find more information about each event by clicking on it in the calendar. If you wish to book on any courses you can do so here.

So, that's probably enough for now. Please get in touch if you have any thoughts, comments, concerns or suggestions about anything to do with your experience at QM.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Opportunities for Science & Engineering PhD students

Two exciting new opportunities for PhD students have recently been posted on the EPSRC website.

Firstly, a 3 month secondment opportunity to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, to work on a policy topic grounded in science and technology. This position is only open to EPSRC-funded students. More details can be found here, and the closing date for applications is 16th October.

The other opportunity is a chance to work in a Toshiba R&D lab in Japan for 2 years. This
is open to PhD level researchers of EU nationality currently working in a UK academic institution. More details can be found on the Toshiba website, and the closing date for this one is 11th December.

Friday 11 September 2009

Get ready for Impact!

Queen Mary are launching an exciting new project - ImpactQM - that is designed to create a new generation of scientists and engineers who are equally at home in both academia and in industry.

This scheme will link PhD students and postdoctoral researchers with selected partners in industry, allowing them to work within that industry for a period of time. The idea is that this will benefit the individual researcher, the university and the industry/company.

So, what exactly do you get out of it? Well - links to and contacts within an industry relevant to your research; the chance to work for a while within a different environment and to learn the skills necessary for success in that sector; mentoring and support within and outside the university; access to relevant training and development activities to further enhance your career development.....the list goes on!

For further details, eligibility criteria and application forms, visit the website.

But be quick! The closing date for applications for this year is 30th September.

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Job hunting in a recession

I posted a little while ago about a Vitae resource on research careers during a recession. I have just found another very useful article on the same subject, on the Manchester Postgraduate Careers Blog (see link on the right) that you might want to take a look at.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Training days at the British Library

The British Library is putting on some subject-specific training days for postgraduate researchers. These are days of talks, workshops and networking opportunities as well as a chance to find out what the library has to offer and how you can access it.

The programme looks like this:

13 October English (Medieval—18th Century)
3 November Social Sciences
1 December Art and Design
8 December History (19th-21st Century)
1 February 2010 History (Medieval—18th Century)
29 March 2010 Modern foreign languages

All days are free of charge, and more information can be found here.

Friday 24 July 2009

Summer GRADBritain magazine available

The latest issue of GRADBritain is now available to download. It contains articles on turning your PhD into a publishable book, how to get through the last few months of your PhD, the benefits of attending a writers' retreat and many other topics that may be of use and/or interest to you.

The deadline for submissions for the next issue is 1st October, so if there's an issue you'd like to write an article on why not have a go? Guidelines for authors are here, and each article published earns £50.

Thursday 16 July 2009

Researcher careers and recession

Vitae have just launched an on-line space for articles, comments and discussion on the subject of research careers during the recession. There are some interesting articles so far, and more should be added soon. As this a topic which is probably of interest and/or concern to a lot of people, this is a useful resource which is definitely worth looking at, and even joining in the discussions if you feel so inclined!

Monday 13 July 2009

Prizes for Social Science Researchers

The Michael Young Prize is awarded to an early career social science researcher whose research has the potential to make a positive and far-reaching impact beyond academia. The prize money is intended to help with dissemination of the research.

More information and application details at the link above.

Monday 29 June 2009

Opportunities to carry out research in Japan

Every year the Canon Foundation grants up to 15 fellowships to European and Japanese researchers. European fellowship holders pursue a period of research in Japan (between 3 and 12 months). These fellowships are open to researchers of any discipline who have gained a PhD or a Master's degree within the last ten years.

More details and application forms are available here, and the closing date is 15th September 2009.

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Science on-line

If you're interested in finding out about how the web is affecting the work of researchers, science communicators, journalists, students, etc, or how you can make the best use of the growing number of online tools, then you should think about heading along to the Science Online London conference on 22nd August at the Royal Institution (a great venue for a meeting - I was there yesterday - especially if you get time to look round their museum).

Registration for the conference will open soon and places are limited, so keep an eye on the website to see what's going on.

On a related topic, the conference is sponsored by Nature Network, which has some very interesting and useful forums, blogs, local and international networks etc. Definitely worth a look!

Friday 12 June 2009

Leadership in action - free course!

Vitae are running a 3-day leadership skills course at the end of July in the Lake District. Places are free for PhD students from anywhere in the country, and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Click on the link for more information and booking details.

This sounds like an excellent course for anyone wishing to develop their leadership skills and style, gain confidence and identify how leadership skills can benefit them now and in the future. It is also a great opportunity to meet other researchers and spend a few days in a beautiful part of the country!

Thursday 4 June 2009

Social Science Work Experience Programme

If you're a PhD student from any social science discipline, and are looking to get some work experience, you might want to look at the Social Science Work Experience Programme. Vacancies for summer placements are being advertised now, and you can find more information here.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

"Real Life of a PhD Student" Blog

Haris Aziz is a mathematics PhD student at the University of Warwick. In his blog he writes about his experiences as a researcher, including posts on careers, conferences, teaching, writing and many other topics relevant to life as a PhD student. Definitely worth a look to pick up advice, tips and a sense of "I'm not the only one who feels like that"!

Friday 15 May 2009

Pitch Your Idea 2009 - Photos at last!

The Pitch Your Idea business plan competition final was over a month ago now, on April 8th, but I've finally got photos from it to post here, to give everyone an idea of what the event was like.

Nine finalists pitched their business plans to a panel of six judges whose expertise covered finance, IP, biotechnology and entrepreneurship. Following their pitch, each finalist was grilled for about 15 minutes by the panel - an experience that was described as being nerve-wracking, but much more positive than Dragon's Den! After a long deliberation (that felt even longer to those of us waiting outside) the judges finally settled on a winner - Becky Stewart from Electronic Engineering for her "AudioBlitz" idea. Melissa George from the Physics department and Martin Morrell, also from Electronic Engineering, were awarded runner-up prizes.

Everybody really enjoyed the day, and the feedback from both the judges and the finalists was very positive. The judges were extremely impressed with standards of the ideas and pitches, and the finalists all said how much they appreciated not only the judges questions and advice, but also the confidence and communication skills they had developed through the competition.

Pitch your Idea will be running again next year, probably starting in January 2010, so watch this space if you are interested! A web area will be set up to publicise next year's event, and photos, videos and interviews from this year will be available on that site.

Thursday 7 May 2009

Graduate School Survival Guide

Here is a useful list of suggestions of how to get the most out of your PhD. It doesn't look very pretty, but if you read it you'll find a lot of very useful tips on managing the relationship with your supervisor, getting the most out of what you read, making continual progress and more. Much of it is (or should be!) common sense, but that certainly doesn't mean it's not worth reminding yourself of this advice every so often!

A few examples:

Prepare for your meetings (with your supervisor)- come to each meeting with:

* List of topics to discuss
* Plan for what you hope to get out of the meeting
* Summary of what you have done since your last meeting
* List of any upcoming deadlines
* Notes from your previous meeting

Continually update your:

* Problem statement
* Goals
* Approach (or a list of possible approaches)
* One-minute version of your research (aka the elevator ride summary)
* Five-minute version of your research

Confront your fears and weaknesses

* If you are afraid of public speaking, volunteer to give lots of talks.
* If you are afraid your ideas are stupid, discuss them with someone.
* If you are afraid of writing, write something about your research every day.

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Careers in Academia - Vitae Event

On Monday 8th June Vitae are holding a one-day conference for postgraduate researchers focusing on Careers in Academia. The event is in Birmingham, and will be repeated later in the year in Bristol.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

* meet with current academics from a range of disciplines to hear about their experiences of an academic careers and ask the questions you’ve always wanted to, but weren’t sure who to ask

* explore how to market yourself for a career in academia, both within your department, and at interview

* look at how to write effective grant/paper applications

*discover what life is like as a postdoctoral researcher

*work with fellow researchers and share experiences with other participants


Further details can be found here.

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Are you working on Human Centred Technology?

The University of Sussex is proud to announce the 11th Human-Centred Technology Postgraduate Workshop, and invites postgraduate students to participate in this year’s event in Brighton, England.

HCT is generally concerned with interactions between people and technologies, particularly in everyday contexts. Themes include, but are not limited to,

* Affective Computing
* Human-Computer Interaction
* User-Centred Design
* Pervasive Computing
* Social Networking
* Virtual Worlds
* Video Games
* Music
* Tangible and Embodied Interfaces
* Computer Supported Collaborative/Cooperative Work
* E-Learning

Delegates from previous years have remarked on the excellent opportunities for networking with other postgraduate students researching in the diverse and exciting area of human-centred technology, as well as the applied workshop activities to help improve research skills in practical ways. Additionally delegates have the opportunity to present their research during short poster and demo sessions. This is an ideal opportunity to get friendly and constructive feedback on your own work from peer researchers in the field.

Details of how to apply to be part of this conference can be found here.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Spring issue of GRADBritain out

The Spring 09 issue of GRADBritain, the magazine by and for PhD researchers, is out now. You can download a copy from here.

In this issue you will find reflections on a GRADschool experience, an article about the role of academia in the arts, the importance of building up an on-line profile and much more. Definitely worth a look!

Also, don't forget that GRADBritain are always seeking contributions from PhD students, so if you're interested in writing an article see the author guidelines here. The deadline for articles for the summer issue is June 1st.

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Researchers needed!

The British Library have commissioned a study to look at the research behaviour of doctoral students born between 1982 and 1994.

At the moment they are looking for late-stage PhD students in all disciplines to form focus groups that will inform how the study proceeds. These focus groups will meet on 27th or 28th April at the British Library.

More information and details of who to contact of you are interested are available here.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

FameLab

FameLab is a competition that aims to find the new faces of UK science, engineering and maths. Entrants must prepare an exciting 3-minute presentation about a scientific topic that will engage a non-scientific audience, and then attend a regional heat (the London one is on 25th April) and present in front of judges. Alternatively you can video your presentation, send it in and have the chance of going straight through to a regional final. Ten finalists picked from the regional finals will win a weekend masterclass in science communication and the opportunity to take part in the FameLab final at the Cheltenham Science Festival in June.

See the website (link above) for more details, and have a go!

If you decide to enter, I would be really interested to hear about your experiences. Please let me know if you're thinking about it - j.m.cordy@qmul.ac.uk.

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Biotechnology YES

The Biotechnology YES (Young Entrepreneurs Scheme) is an innovative competition developed to raise awareness of the commercialisation of bioscience ideas among postgraduate students/postdoctoral scientists.

More information can be found here.

In order to enter the competition, you need to form a team of (usually 4-5) PhD students and/or post-docs and develop an imaginary idea that has the potential for commercialisation. As the website says, "Your idea should be based on biotechnology that is realistic, but is currently hypothetical. For example, you could assume for the sake of the competition, as the 2002 winning team did, that a micro-organism has been identified with novel enzymatic activity. Remember that you idea must be believable; you should be able to account for the advances in science needed to develop your imaginary technology."

Local three-day workshops are then held to help you develop your idea into a business plan, and to prepare a presentation to sell your idea to a panel. Two teams from each local workshop are then invited to participate in the final.

The closing date for entries is 17th June, so there's still plenty of time to get thinking of ideas. Local workshops will be held in the autumn, and the final will be held in December.

For anyone working in the biosciences who is interested in finding out about commercialisation of biotechnology, this really is a fantastic opportunity. I took part in the 2002 competition (or 03? Can't quite remember!) while I was doing my PhD, and spent an amazing few days at a local workshop in Edinburgh, attending presentations from business and biotech experts, and staying up until all hours putting together our business plan and presentation. Sadly, my team didn't make it through to the final, but I learned an incredible amount from those few days, both about commercialisation of biotechnology research and about myself and what I am capable of. Plus, it was really great fun, and we got to go to the zoo on the way home. Can't argue with that!

Friday 6 March 2009

Perspectives - A poster competition with a difference

Do you discuss your science with confidence?

Or is its social impact just a brief sentence at the start of a publication?

Scientists often have to show that they are aware of the social & ethical context of their research. Yet most early-career researchers have little time set aside to consider the social implications of their work.

Perspectives, a poster session with a difference, is a chance for you to discuss your research with a non-specialist audience. Attend an interactive training day – learn about poster design and sharpen your communication skills. Then present your poster at the British Science Festival in September, at the University of Surrey in Guildford. Cash prizes are awarded by a panel of expert judges.

For more information, and to apply online, visit the website.

Monday 2 March 2009

It's survey time again! - The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2009

The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2009 has been launched today, and I would like to encourage (beg, even!) you to complete it. As a postgraduate researcher at Queen Mary, your opinion of your experience here is very important, and any information you provide will help us to improve things for you during the rest of your time here, and for future students.

PRES is an online questionnaire and it should not take longer than 20 minutes for you to complete it. All data collected will be held anonymously and securely. Your results cannot be traced back to you in any way.

A high response rate is necessary to obtain robust results, so your participation is very important and your time is greatly appreciated. You may have completed this survey last year, but please take the time to fill it in again, so we can see what improvements have been made since then, and what areas still need work. After this year, PRES will not run again until 2011, so it is a good opportunity for you make your views known now!

The survey is available here until 30/04/09.

The survey consists of 5 pages and once you click ‘Continue’ you will not be able to come back to the previous page.

The higher response rate we get to this survey, the more accurate picture we can obtain of what things Queen Mary does well, and what needs improving, and that will lead to a better experience for all research students. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you!

Monday 16 February 2009

Career Pathways day for final year PhDs and post-docs

Wednesday 18/03/09 (12.00 – 6.00 pm)

Garrod Building (Old Anatomy Lecture Theatre), Whitechapel Campus

Register for this event on www.esdcourses.org.uk

The purpose of this event is to provide an overview of some career paths available to both final year PhDs and postdoctoral researchers.

Confirmed speakers:

Working in a Research Institute / Industry vs Academia Dr Greg Elgar (QMUL)
Science Writing & Publishing Simon Frantz (Noble Foundation)
Patent Attorney Dr. Howard Sands (Boult Wade Tennant)
Head of Research Operations Dr Karen Sergiou (Imperial College)
Teaching Dr. David Vine (Sutton Grammar School)

Ever thought about teaching? Great opportunities for Chemistry/Physics/Engineering PhDs

CAN YOU INSPIRE A FUTURE GENERATION OF CHEMISTS AND PHYSICISTS?

A number of highly competitive Foyle Science Scholarships available for PhD Graduates and Post-Doctoral Researchers

● Do you have, or are you soon to have, a PhD in Physical Sciences or Engineering?

● Are you interested in playing a pivotal role in an innovative project aimed at raising aspiration of school pupils to study physics and chemistry in state secondary schools?

● Are you keen to combine your creative ideas gained through research with teacher training to communicate the excitement of Physics or Chemistry to school pupils?

● Would you like to gain a teacher training qualification (PGCE)?

If yes, then the INSPIRE project will be of interest to you

Applicants from EEA (European Economic Area) or with resident status are invited for a nine months PGCE studentship of £15,000 (equivalent to approx £25k per/annum) and payment of home student fees. For TDA requirements, please see www.tda.gov.uk

Download an application form and find out more: here

E-mail the completed applications with a copy of CV to: s.alizadeh@imperial.ac.uk

Closing date: 9th March 2009
Interviews will be held on 25th and 26th March 2009
Starting date of the PGCE course 1st September 2009

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Internship opportunities for research students at the British Academy

The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences (HSS), is offering internship opportunities for HSS research students. Interns will support the Academy’s policy activities, making valuable contributions to public policy topics that require input from HSS.

More details can be downloaded from here.

The internships are for three months and can be full- or part-time.

The closing date for applications is 6th March.

Monday 9 February 2009

Business Plan Competition - Montreal

Business Plan Competition

Finalists receive cash prizes, all-expenses paid trips to the Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada) Spring Meeting on the 5th May 09 in Montreal, world-class mentorship & networking opportunities!

Do you have an interesting business idea with intellectual property and commercial potential?

The Licensing Executives Society are inviting Masters and PhD students from any discipline to apply to their business plan competition.

What you will need to do

Submit a comprehensive business plan with a core intellectual property (IP) licensing component.
Entries are judged on attractiveness of the venture, quality of the product/service offered, market opportunity and investment potential.

What you can win

Finalist teams receive all-expenses paid trips to compete in Montreal at the LES Spring Meeting (5th May 09)
Unique network opportunity with licensing professionals.
The winning team will receive $10,000 and runner-up team will win $1,000.

Deadline 4 March 09. For more details on guidelines visit the LES foundation website.

If you are interested, please contact your Business Manager at Queen Mary Innovations for help with submitting your application.

Thursday 5 February 2009

Opportunity for third year Social Science PhD students

The University of Durham is running a writing workshop on 30th/31st March targeted at year three students who have used qualitative methods of data collection and who are at the point of translating this data into written out-put for a thesis or for publication. The costs of the workshop will be covered by ESRC.

If you are interested, further details can be found here. Students have to be nominated by their supervisors to attend, and the nomination forms and eligibility criteria can also be found through that link.

The closing date for nominations is 20th Feb.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

A chance to highlight your skills to employers

Vitae are currently gathering information about the skills that researchers possess, in order to increase employers' understanding of what they could gain by employing PhD graduates. They would like PhD students to leave comments here about the experiences they have had and skills they have developed during their PhD. The aim is to use some of these comments as part of a publication which can be circulated to employers outside the higher education sector, who may not currently be aware of what PhD graduates can offer their company.

So, have a think about what you have done/learned during your PhD that you would want employers to be aware of, and visit the Vitae page to leave your comments.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2008 - Results

Some of you might remember filling in the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) sometime in April or May of last year. Maybe you've been wondering what happened to all the information that you provided, or maybe you just forgot about it immediately, but either way - the results have now been analysed, written up, presented at committee meetings, and a variety of changes and new initiatives are being put into place as a result of the comments you made.

A summary of the results, recommendations and actions taken can be downloaded here.

I apologise for the length of time it has taken to get this information to you, but as you will probably know my predecessor, Cara Owens, left QM soon after PRES 2008 ran and I wasn't appointed until the autumn, so there was a long delay before the results were analysed.

Despite that, I hope you can see that the information you gave was very useful to the college and the Graduate Schools, and has led to some significant changes being made. If you have any comments about anything in the report, or would like more detailed information about any of the results, please let me know.

PRES 2009 will be starting in March this year, and I will be sending more information out about that nearer the time. Last year's survey had a response rate of around 20%, but it would be great if we could get a much higher percentage this year and ensure that the views of all PhD students are being considered in decisions that are made about the college.

Thursday 22 January 2009

New careers website for Arts & Humanities PhD students

Beyond the PhD is a website designed for arts & humanities PhD students who are starting to think about where life after their PhD will take them. It was developed by people with arts & humanities PhDs together with career professionals, and it brings together a huge range of personal experiences from people from different backgrounds, ages and stages of life who have been through a PhD in an arts and humanities discipline and made the transition into a variety of work beyond it. The site consists of audio & video clips of people talking about their experiences, together with videos of group discussions on a variety of topics and articles relevant to PhD researchers.

I think this could be a very useful resource for PhD students, even non arts & humanities, who are thinking about career options and want to find out more about what's out there. The fact that this site contains such personal perspectives on finding your niche after the PhD makes it all the more interesting.

I have put a link to this site in the Links section of the sidebar, to make it easy to find.

Researchers in Residence

Some of you might remember that I sent an e-mail round a while ago about the Researchers in Residence scheme, which gives PhD students and post-docs (currently only those funded by UK research councils or Wellcome Trust) an opportunity to spend a few hours in a local school sharing your research and experience. This is a really exciting chance to step outside the world of academia and develop your communication skills in a completely different environment.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to arrange for the organiser to come to QM and run a training session here, but there is another session at Imperial on 16th March, if anyone is interested in going along to that and finding out more.

Also, if anyone is already on the scheme, I would be very interested in hearing about your experiences, and perhaps you would be able to write a short article about it to post on this blog? Please let me know!

Monday 19 January 2009

Upcoming courses

The following ESD courses for research students are coming up in the next few days, and still have places available:

20/1, 2pm-5pm, Writing your Thesis

21/1 (2pm-5pm) and 29/1 (10am-1pm), Mathematical Writing

27/1, 10am-4pm, Managing research projects from start to finish

28/1, 2pm-5pm, Organising time for researchers

If you want to book on any of these courses you can do so through the ESD booking link on the side-bar. Get in touch with me if you want any more information or if you have trouble booking.

Friday 16 January 2009

Intrapreneurship - more than a typo!

The term entrepreneurship, generally used to refer to the creation of new ventures and businesses, is familiar to everyone. Research environments often create entrepreneurs - for example, those who find a commercial application of their research and go on to form spin-out companies - and students are encouraged to develop entrepreneurial skills through schemes such as the Pitch your Idea competition, described a couple of posts back.

Intrapreneurship however, is a much less well-known term, and in fact my blogger spell-check is telling me it isn't even a real word. It was used by Macrae in 1982, and intrapreneurs have been described as "those who take hands-on responsibility for creating innovation of any kind within an organisation" (Pinchot, 1985). The essential difference between entre- and intrapreneurship is that intrapreneurship is about using your skills to create change within your own organisation, rather than taking them outside the organisation.

So......why is this important? Well, I'm really pointing this out to try and make you think about what ideas and skills you might have that could help create change here at Queen Mary. What difference could you make to your own research environment? One of the main issues that came out of the results from the 2008 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey at QM (PRES, and I will talk more about these results in a later post) was that PhD students were generally unsatisfied with the opportunities available for them to meet other researchers and to get involved in their department or the wider research community. Perhaps this means that the departments, Graduate Schools or ESD need to organise more events, and better publicise the ones they do offer. This is probably true. But it also provides an opportunity for PhD students and post-docs to think about ways in which they could organise their own clubs, social events, seminar series etc..... After all, you're the people that know best what it is that you need. Obviously being "intrapreneurial" is about more than having an idea - it's about transforming it into a reality - but if you do have an idea of something you think could be done, then talk to people about how you might make it happen! Talk to your supervisor, your colleagues, your department, me. Ask people if there might be funds available for organising an event. You never know what you might find!


Macrae, N. (1982) Intrapreneurial Now, The Economist, April 17
Pinchot, G. (1985) Intrapreneuring: why you don't have to leave the corporation to become an entrepreneur, Harper & Row, New York

Friday 9 January 2009

UK GRADschools

Information and booking now available for 2009 GRADschools

GRAD schools are three-day residential courses for PhD students run by Vitae. They are open to all PhD researchers in their 2nd year or above, although free places are only available to students with research-council funding. During the three days students take part in all kinds of activities designed to help them reflect on their skills and develop new ones. Much more information is available from the link above.

The website states that 'Our vision is to create an inspirational, challenging and experiential learning environment in which all participants will learn something new about themselves and take away skills, tools or information which will motivate them to complete their studies, further realise their potential, and enable them to make more informed choices about their future careers.'

This may sound a bit vague and "fluffy", but having been on one myself I can safely say that the courses do exactly what they say. While I was very sceptical at first about what a few days of "team-building" activities could possibly do for me, I came away with renewed enthusiasm for my research and also the knowledge that my PhD was helping me to develop a wide range of skills that I previously hadn't been aware of. I actually think my experience at the school helped lead me to my current job here, as it was such a sort of eureka-moment for me (wow - I am actually good at some things that don't involve being tied to a lab bench!) that I really want to help other people in similar situations. On top of all of that, I also made some lasting friendships with PhD students from other institutions that I would never otherwise have met.

If you like the sound of this but aren't eligible for a free place on a GRADschool, or don't fancy the residential aspect, then I will be running a non-residential 3-day skills school at Queen Mary in the summer. The dates are 22nd-24th June. Booking is already open through the ESD course site (see the link on the side-bar), but I will provide more information and reminders nearer the time.

Pitch Your Idea - Business plan training & competition

The 2009 ‘Pitch Your Idea’ business plan competition and training programme is open to all PhDs and postdocs across the College.

This competition is a great chance for you to gain an insight into the business world and to see if you can turn your ideas into a winning business. Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of discipline and all you need to have is an idea. Your idea can be anything from your research to a hobby or interest you enjoy. Finalists from last year’s competition started with ideas that ranged from developing computer software that could follow drumbeats, to setting up a martial arts club in the local community.

Whatever your idea, in the competition you will gain valuable training and advice from business professionals on how to develop a short business plan. The competition begins with three workshops (3 hours each) held in January and February 2009. Areas covered will include intellectual property, marketing and sales, routes to market, securing finances and writing business plans. Following these workshops you will have a chance to practise ‘pitching’ your idea and getting some invaluable feedback from professionals. Two advice and networking lunches are scheduled for February-March to allow you to finalise the details of your business idea, by seeking advice from experts and some of last years finalists.

After the training stage is over you will be asked to submit a short business plan, and finalists will be chosen based on these. If you are one of the finalists you will have the opportunity to ‘Pitch Your Idea’ to an expert panel of judges at the finale in April, and be in with a chance to win the top prize of £1500 towards conference travel.

Places on the competition are still available, but the deadline for applying for a place is January 14th 2009. If you would like any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me, or to book a place on the competition just send me an e-mail with your details, and a brief description of your idea. Remember, it doesn’t have to be fully formed at this stage – the training programme will help you develop it into a business plan.

Welcome to the Queen Mary PhD blog!

I've set up this blog in the hope that it will be a good way of letting people know about upcoming courses and events, and also a place where I can draw your attention to useful/interesting articles and information relevant to PhD researchers. I might even write a few things myself, if the mood takes me! I would also be very interested to include any contributions from Queen Mary PhD students, so if you find anything you think should be on here, or would like to write a post about any part of your research experience please let me know.

My intention is to update the blog at least once a week, and hopefully whenever I find new stuff to put on it. I'm new to the whole blogging thing though, so please bear with me if it's a bit patchy to start with! Any comments, feedback, advice will be gratefully received!