Queen Mary PhD Blog

Junk the Jargon 2012

2012-01-24T10:36:00.003Z

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”, the annual competition for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

Heats will be held in each faculty in early February (details below), and successful participants will go through to the final, held on Wednesday 15th February, 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 Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice-Principal (Research and International Affairs); Prof. Peter McOwan, Vice-Principal (External Partnerships and Public Engagement); and Tracey Letts, Outreach Officer at the Science Museum. Prizes of £500, £250 and £100 will be awarded for the top three presentations.

You can read about and view videos from previous year’s competitions to inspire you!:

2010 competition
Write-up in the Bulletin
2011 competition

Both competitions were really enjoyable, and I’m sure this year’s will be too.

Details of your faculty’s heat:

Humanities & Social Sciences: Monday 6th Feb, 5pm in the Arts One lecture theatre.

School of Medicine & Dentistry: Tuesday 7th Feb, 5pm in the Perrin Leacture Theatre, Blizard building, Whitechapel

Science & Engineering: Wednesday 8th Feb, 5pm in the David Sizer lecture theatre, Francis Bancroft building.

If you would like more details or are interested in taking part, please e-mail Jo Cordy

The Oxbridge-London Biotech Roundtable - upcoming events

2012-01-16T11:18:00.002Z

Oxbridge-London Biotech Roundtable Presents:

Confessions of a Bio-Entrepreneur: Stem Cell Entrepreneurship
WHAT: Serial entrepreneur Dr Yen Choo of Plasticell Ltd and Progenitor Labs Ltd will share his experiences and advice for budding entrepreneurs in biotech and beyond.
WHEN: 19 Jan 2012, 6.00pm
WHERE: Stamford Street Lecture Theatre, King’s College London (Waterloo campus)

Please signup here

Upcoming OBR-London events:
How IP turns scientific breakthroughs into profitable ventures (Feb 9)
Risky Business: The Pharma Game (Feb 21, 22, 24)
The biotech debate: “This house believes UK biotech is dead” (Mar 16)

Cafe Scientifique - 14th December

2011-12-05T09:22:00.002Z

The first Café Scientifique evening of this academic year will be held on Wed 14th December, from 6pm (until 8 or 8:30ish) in the World Marche Common Room, Mile End.

Café Scientifique evenings are regular events for PhD researchers and research staff. The idea of the event is to create an informal, relaxed atmosphere where researchers from all disciplines can meet and chat, and also present their work and ideas to a general, friendly audience. A typical evening would consist of short presentations from researchers, wine/soft drinks and pizza, and other activities such as a quiz, a debate or a creative challenge.

The talks at this event will be:

The weird & wonderful world of Amino Acids
Hannah Wright, SBCS

Crude Cinematography: Image Stylistics Influenced by the Petrol Dollar in Lagos and Luanda
Nosa Obayiuwana, SLLF

Software Systems are leaking your information
Quoc Sang Phan, EECS

Incomprehensibility and Eminemce in Research Papers: Is it over my head or is it just meaningless waffle?
Tendayi Bloom, Law

If you would like to come, please can you book a place here
This is so I know how many people to order drinks and pizza for!

PhD comics - the movie!

2011-10-27T15:33:00.002+01:00

I am really pleased to announce that Queen Mary will be screening the PhD Comics Movie! If you’re not familiar with PhD comics, it describes itself as “"Piled Higher and Deeper", the ongoing chronicle of life (or the lack thereof) in grad school.” The comic strips have been going for years, but the film has only been released this autumn.

The details of the screening are:

Mon 14th November from 5:30pm in the Perrin Lecture Theatre, Whitechapel campus. The film is slightly over an hour long.

This is a free event for Queen Mary PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and staff, and it will be followed by a drinks reception in the Old Library, Whitechapel which everyone is encouraged to attend.

Places at this event can be booked on the Learning Institute booking system - the event is listed as “PhD comics movie screening”.

I look forward to seeing lots of you at this event!

British Library days for new PhD students

2011-10-14T15:57:00.001+01:00

The National Postgraduate Open Days are specially tailored days of talks, workshops and networking opportunities at the British Library, focusing on your research subject. Each day includes a general introduction to relevant research sources, curator talks and workshops, and details on how to get a Reader Pass. To ensure the days are accessible to research postgraduates from across the UK, students from outside London may apply for a limited number of £30 travel bursaries.

The days are extremely popular, so early booking is advised. The days are free to attend and lunch is provided.

Open Days are currently offered in History, English Literature and Social Sciences.

For more information and to book a place visit the website.

New academic year!

2011-10-13T14:22:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the lateness of this post, but I'd just like to say a huge welcome to all PhD students who have recently started at Queen Mary, and a welcome to the 2011-12 academic year to current students, for whom I guess it's just business as usual! If you're new to this blog you can find out a bit more about me in the sidebar.

The Learning Institute programme of workshops for this year has started. You can see the calendar of what's coming up at the top of this page. I will also be using this blog to advertise other events that are running, both within Queen Mary and outside. If you want to find more out about the Learning Institute, what it offers and how to book on courses, please visit the main website, and the pages specifically for research students. You can find my contact details on the site - please get in touch if you have any questions, or any suggestions for things you would like to see on the blog or the website.

Hope to see you all at some workshops or events soon!
Jo

Vitae focus group - European Framework for Work Experience

2011-07-29T09:36:00.000+01:00

Vitae are looking for enthusiastic researchers to be part of an exciting focus group to gauge your opinions and thoughts on implementing a new European Framework for Work Experience and accompanying resources for researchers.

The framework was developed a number of years ago in partnership with a number of European institutions and organisations to agree on the 12 most important competencies that employers look for in undergraduates.
Whilst originally designed for the undergraduate community, Vitae feel that there is applicability to the researcher community and would like to investigate how this framework could be used to enhance the employability of researchers in the near future.

We are looking for postgraduate researchers or research staff across any discipline with 3 hours of spare time on Wednesday 17 August between 11am-2pm and an additional hour in advance to read through pre-focus group materials. Lunch will be provided and any travel expenses incurred will be covered.

For more information and to register please click here.

Last Cafe Scientifique of 2010-11 - 6th July

2011-06-21T16:14:00.002+01:00

The next Café Scientifique event for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines will be on Wednesday 6th July, from 6pm in the World Marche Common room on the Mile End campus.

The presentations at this event will be:

‘Sun: The Earth’s warm friend or your skin’s cold enemy?‘: Correlation between sun-exposure and skin cancer.
Nikol Mladkova (Blizard Institute)

Protecting The Pork Pie: What Is The Protected Food Names Scheme And How Does It Work?
Matthew Rippon (Geography)

Modern money mechanics
Marco Paladini (EECS)

Making the most of the internet

2011-06-01T11:15:00.004+01:00

ResearchGate is a social and professional network tailored to academics, scientists and researchers with over one million active members.

The site lets you engage and interact with fellow researchers, build an online presence and keep up-to-date with happenings in your field.

A recent blog post on the site describes the best ways for graduates to make use of the internet with regards to starting a career in research/academia. Hopefully you will find it useful!

Next Cafe Scientifique - Thursday 19th May

2011-05-17T14:22:00.002+01:00

The next Café Scientifique event for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines will be on Thursday 19th May, from 6pm in the World Marche Common room on the Mile End campus. This is a different venue from previous events!

The presentations at this event will be:

There’s more to sex than you think (part 2!) – Helene Muller (Biological & Chemical Sciences)
and
And you think we’ve got it bad? Higher Education in Sierra Leone – Marie-Aimee Brajeux (Law).

For further information or to book a place please contact Dr Jo Cordy (j.m.cordy@qmul.ac.uk).

New website about Academic Careers

2011-03-10T10:24:00.003Z

The University of Manchester Careers Service have just launched a new site which is intended to help PhD students and early career researchers to get a better understanding of what an academic career entails, how to get one and how to succeed in one.

The website is open to all researchers from any university or discipline. It answers many questions about how to make it as an academic.

The site contains plenty of video clips of academics and early career researchers, as well as information about the different stages of an academic career and tips for finding jobs, applying for them and succeeding in interviews.

Visit the site here.

Cafe Scientifique - 17th March

2011-03-08T14:55:00.003Z

The next Café Scientifique event for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines is being held on Thursday 17th March. It will be a chance for researchers to get together and meet each other in a relaxed setting. This is an informal and fun evening event involving free wine & pizza, three short presentations from researchers and some other activities such as a quiz and/or creative challenges!

The presentations at this event will be from Hannah Wright (Biological & Chemical Sciences), Keith Jones (Electronic Engineering & Computer Science) and Katie Lidster (ICMS).

The evening will start at 6pm at Mucci, Library Square on the Mile End campus. For further information and to book a place please contact Dr Jo Cordy (j.m.cordy@qmul.ac.uk).

Junk the Jargon Final

2011-02-22T15:37:00.000Z

Junk the Jargon 2011 results

The final of this year's competition was on Thursday 17th Feb in People's Palace Lecture Theatre 1. All 12 finalists did a fantastic job of engaging, entertaining and educating the audience - there were creative analogies, humour, a huge variety of props and even the odd explosion!

The judges for the final were: Prof. Evelyn Welch, Professor of Renaissance Studies and Vice-Principal (Research & International Affairs); Prof. Colin Jones, President of the Royal Historical Society; Nicola Horne from Cancer Research UK; and Rhian Harris, Director of the V&A Museum of Childhood, and they had a really tough job to pick first, second and third place, but they eventually managed and the final decision was:

1st place: Myrto Chioni (and her two lovely assistants), from Barts Cancer Institute, for her description of "The secret life of Mr FGFR".

2nd Place: Jamie Upton, from the Blizard Institute of Cell & Molecular Science, for his poem about baldness and his research on hair follicules.

3rd Place: Marie-Aimee Brajeux from the School of Law, for her talk about ASBOs.

The audience also had a chance to vote for their favourite, and they picked Alex Papple, from Barts Cancer Institute, for his amazing use of dangerous props to explain how anti-cancer drugs could be made more effective.

Thanks to everyone who was involved!
Videos will be posted on the Learning Institute website soon.

Events for Arts & Humanities researchers

2011-02-02T10:10:00.003Z

I've just come across two things that are coming up for researchers in Arts and Humanities subjects.

The first, on the 15th Feb, is a focus group at the British Library, designed to gain a better understanding of how BL services meet the needs of Arts & Humanities researchers within the Higher Education community. A payment of £50 will be given to anyone taking part. Each group will last for approximately 1.5 hours, and they will run between lunchtime and 5:30pm.
Anyone interested in participating should email David Mort at IRN Research at dmort@irn-research.com giving details of their subject area, institution, and general research experience (i.e. first-year PhD, early career researcher, established academic) PLUS a telephone number where they can be contacted in advance of the group.

The second event is at King's College London on 28th Feb:

"Graduates’ Day, King’s College London, 28th February 11-4, Anatomy Theatre Museum, 6th Floor, King's Building, King's College London

Refreshments and lunch provided

What is the public value of Arts and Humanities?

It is no secret: There were less difficult times for Arts and Humanities. Time is short and finances are scarce. So: Why study Shakespeare? Why think about politics and the world religions? Why explore national history? Why reflect upon moral issues?

The first Arts and Humanities Graduates’ Day at King’s College London invites PhD students from Arts and Humanities in the University of London to engage with these issues and discuss the importance of Arts and Humanities in the contemporary world. It will also be an opportunity to meet fellow research students working in the field of Arts and Humanities.

This free event will take place on Monday 28th February, 11-4 in the Anatomy Theatre Museum, 6th Floor, King's Building, King's College London, Strand Campus:

http://www.anatomytheatreandmuseum.kcl.ac.uk/location

If you would like to join us for this free event, please email Sarah Hayward (sarah.hayward@kcl.ac.uk) to book your place. Refreshments and lunch will be provided."

The Thesis Whisperer

2011-01-28T14:33:00.003Z

I've recently come across this blog, The Thesis Whisperer, which has tonnes of great posts and articles about aspects of doing and surviving a PhD. I'll put a link to it at the side of this blog so you can easily see new posts.

Cafe Scientifique - 3rd February

2011-01-18T09:18:00.003Z

The next Café Scientifique event for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines is being held on Thursday 3rd February. It will be a chance for researchers to get together and meet each other in a relaxed setting. This is an informal and fun evening event involving free wine & pizza, three short presentations from researchers and some other activities such as a quiz and/or creative challenges!

The presentations at this event will be from Mark Stevenson (Biological & Chemical Sciences), Peter Kirby-Harris (Politics) and Emily Collins (Geography).

The evening will start at 6pm at Mucci, Library Square on the Mile End campus. For further information and to book a place please contact Dr Jo Cordy (j.m.cordy@qmul.ac.uk).

PCs at Queen Mary

2011-01-11T12:25:00.003Z

If any of you ever need to use the PCs that are available around the QM campuses, this should be of use to you: IT Services have recently launched a new website showing how many PCs are free in all the labs and other locations around campus.

Junk the Jargon 2011

2011-01-10T15:25:00.005Z

Junk the Jargon 2011 is nearly here!

Can you make your research clear and entertaining to a wide audience in only 3 minutes? If you think so, or would just like to try, then enter the competition!

Faculty Heats

Humanities & Social Sciences: Tues 8th Feb, 4pm in Lock-keeper’s Cottage, Mile End

Science & Engineering: Wed 9th Feb, 4pm in People’s Palace LT1, Mile End

Medicine & Dentistry: Thurs 10th Feb, 5pm in Perrin LT, Blizard Building, Whitechapel

The Final

The final will be on Thursday 17th Feb in People’s Palace Lecture Theatre 1 from 5pm. It will be followed by prize-giving and a drinks reception in the People’s Palace foyer. Prizes of £500, £250 and £100 will be awarded for the top three presentations, and there will also be a separate prize awarded based on the audience’s vote.

Judges for the final are:

Prof. Evelyn Welch, Vice-Principal (Research & International Affairs)
Prof. Colin Jones, President of the Royal Historical Society
Nicola Horne from Cancer Research UK
Rhian Harris, Director of the V&A Children’s Museum
A representative from the science communication organisation Guerilla Science

To find out more, or to book a place at one of the faculty heats, please contact Jo Cordy: j.m.cordy@qmul.ac.uk.

Cafe Scientifique - Next week!

2010-12-02T11:15:00.001Z

The next Café Scientifique event for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines is being held on Thursday 9th December. It will be a chance for researchers to get together and meet each other in a relaxed setting. This is an informal and fun evening event involving free wine & pizza, three short presentations from researchers and some other activities such as a quiz and/or creative challenges!
The speakers at this event are Carol Rivas, from the Institute of Health Sciences Education, Allan Pang from the School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, and Kathryn Cassidy from the School of Geography.
The evening will start at 6pm at Mucci, Library Square on the Mile End campus. For further information and to book a place please contact Dr Jo Cordy (j.m.cordy@qmul.ac.uk).

National GRADschools 2011

2010-11-22T15:01:00.003Z

The dates for the Vitae National GRADschools 2011 have just been announced. They are:

GRADschool 1: Windermere, 1 - 4 March

GRADschool 2: Bournemouth, 14 - 17 June

GRADschool 3: Windermere, 11 - 14 October

More information on GRADschools can be found here, but basically they are residential courses for PhD students, that aim to do the following:

'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.'

The courses are aimed at PhD students in their second year or above. If you are research council funded you will be eligible for a funded place on a GRADschool subject to availability. If you are a non-research council funded researcher you may apply for a national GRADschool but you or your department/school will need to cover the cost of your place and you will need to provide invoice details.

More details about the 2011 courses, and how to book, can be found here.

Having been on one of these courses myself during my PhD, I can't recommend them highly enough and I would strongly urge anyone to attend one. If you are interested, you should book as soon as possible, as the places are open to any PhD students in the country and they will get taken fast!

The Digital Researcher

2010-11-22T14:53:00.002Z

On 14th Feb 2011, The British Library and Vitae are running a free one-day course for postgraduate research students and research staff to help them make the most of new technologies in their research.

On the day participants will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of:

* the role that online networks can play in supporting research and researchers' careers
* how to manage your online profile (positively)
* how to build networks to support your research and career
* the range of different tools that are available to support you and your research

The event will be held at the British Library, and more information, including how to book, is available here.

Leadership in action - free non-residential course!

2010-10-26T18:57:00.000+01:00

The Vitae London hub are running a 3-day Leadership in Action course at the London School of Economics from 15th-17th December for research students and staff. This is a non-residential course, and is completely free to attend.

The course will allow you to explore and develop your leadership skills. You will have the opportunity to look at relevant theory, practice your leadership style and receive feedback.

This course offers you the opportunity to:

- explore leadership both in theory and in practice
- work with a team of experienced facilitators from a range of career backgrounds, who will ensure you get the most out of the 3 days
- meet researchers from a variety of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages
- develop your understanding of leadership theory and how to apply it in practice
- receive feedback on your leadership style and how you can develop it
- take a few days out from your research both physically and mentally, and have some space in which to consider yourself and your next steps.

If you are interested, there is more information here, and you can book a place by e-mailing londonhub@vitae.ac.uk. There are only 36 places, and they are being filled on a first-come-first-served basis, so make sure you get in quick if you do want to go!

Cafe Scientifique - 4th November

2010-10-22T16:15:00.000+01:00

Café Scientifique evening for PhD and post-doctoral researchers in all disciplines!

The second Café Scientifique event for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines is being held on Thursday 4^th November. It will be a chance for researchers to get together and meet each other in a relaxed setting. This is an informal and fun evening event involving free wine & pizza, three short presentations from researchers and some other activities such as a quiz and/or creative challenges! The presentations at this event will be from Manuela Graf (ICMS), Giammarco Campanella (School of Mathematical Sciences) and Zimei Rong (School of Engineering & Materials Science). The evening will start at 6pm at Mucci, Library Square on the Mile End campus. For further information and to book a place please contact Dr Tracy Bussoli (t.j.bussoli@qmul.ac.uk).

Courses at the School of Advanced Study

2010-10-14T11:59:00.003+01:00

The School of Advanced Study (SAS), which is part of the University of London and based in Senate House, runs a programme of research skills training workshops which are open to researchers from other institutions working in the humanities & social sciences. These workshops cover a variety of research skills and methodologies. A pdf of the handbook detailing the workshops can be found here.

There are also some discipline-specific workhops in English, Modern Languages, History, Law and Music, many of which are open to students from outside SAS. The details of these are also in the handbook above.

A new academic year!

2010-09-28T16:42:00.002+01:00

For any new research students reading this - Welcome to Queen Mary! And for everyone else, I hope you had a great summer whether you stayed here or headed off to more exotic locations!

The programme of Learning Institute workshops for the 2010-11 year is about to start. You should receive a wallplanner listing all the courses soon, and they can also be seen on the google calendar in the sidebar of this blog. This year we have made a bit of a change to the course booking system, to try and ensure that there are spaces on the workshops for people who want to attend. Booking is now open for courses up until Christmas, but for courses in Jan, Feb & March booking won't open until 13th December, and for courses from April - June booking won't open until 1st March 2011. On the booking site there will be a reminder of this, and an invitation to contact me if you have a very good reason for needing to book a course more than a few months in advance.

Throughout the year there will also be various events and competitions you might want to get involved with, both inside QM and outside. I will post information about those on this blog, and also on the Learning Institute PhD pages.

Please get in touch if you have any thoughts, comments, concerns or suggestions about anything to do with your experience at QM!

The Learning Institute

2010-09-08T10:54:00.003+01:00

On 1st September 2010, Educational and Staff Development became known as The Learning Institute. This reflects the fact that we not only work with staff across the college, but also with postgraduate and undergraduate students too.

The new Learning Institute (LI) website describes all the services we offer, and also includes pages aimed at PhD students, with information about training opportunities, events, personal development planning and more.

In the near future we will be setting up an area of the site (the Learning Network) especially for research students, which will contain blogs and discussion forums on any topics you would like to talk about. This blog will be moving over to that site soon.

If you have some time, please take a look at the PhD pages on the LI site and let me know whether you think anything needs adding or changing (my contact details can be found on the LI site). I would like the pages to be a useful resource for research students, so any input would be gratefully received!

When the Learning Network is up and running, I will also be inviting research students to contribute to the blog, on any topics they feel are relevant, so if you have any ideas please let me know.

Improve your teaching skills and earn £18 an hour at Queen Mary!

2010-08-02T14:25:00.002+01:00

The Queen Mary Careers Team is looking to recruit a PhD student to help manage the seasonal demand (Autumn Term in the first instance) for CV feedback from undergraduate students at Queen Mary.

This is a great opportunity to develop your teaching and facilitation skills, earn some cash, and improve your CV writing skills at the same time!

If you are interested, see the QM Careers blog for further information.

Cafe Scientifique - Next week!

2010-06-09T09:53:00.002+01:00

Next Wednesday (16th June) the first Cafe Scientifique event for PhD students and postdocs at QM is happening! This will hopefully be the first of a series of these events, designed to create a relaxed, informal atmosphere where researchers can enjoy free food and wine, chat to each other, hear talks from other researchers and take part in some fun activities such as pub-style quizzes.

These events are for researchers from all disciplines, and next week we will have ten minute talks from Helene Muller (Biological & Chemical Sciences), Tom Sebrell (History) and John Broad (Institute of Cell & Molecular Science). I am always on the lookout for volunteers to talk at future events too, so if you would like to talk about your research, or a related topic, in ten minutes to a very friendly, non-specialist audience, please get in touch!

The evening will start at 6pm at Bar Med, Library Square on the Mile End campus. Please come along - it should be a lot of fun!

To book a place (so we have an idea of numbers for catering) please e-mail Kevin Byron (k.c.byron@qmul.ac.uk).

Biotechnology YES - 2010

2010-05-27T09:57:00.004+01:00

Biotechnology YES is an innovative programme and competition aimed at raising awareness of commercialisation of bioscience research. It is co-organised by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise & Innovation (UNIEI). YES entrants form imaginary companies and bid for funding to commercialise their hypothetical ideas. Through 3-day workshops taking place across the UK this autumn, participants receive training from entrepreneurs, patent lawyers and industry representatives in the business skills necessary to recognise, protect and harness the commercial potential of scientific research outputs.

The culmination of the competition is the preparation and presentation, by each team, of a hypothetical business plan for a new start-up company. The competition is therefore fully in line with the government’s objective of encouraging economic impact and the competition is endorsed by a number of bio-based industries through their sponsorship. In addition, the winning team of the national Biotechnology YES competition will receive a prize of £1000.

Since its launch fifteen years ago, Biotechnology YES has provided entrepreneurial business training for around 3000 researchers from across the UK. A recent independent review of the scheme has highlighted that many former participants found YES to be very influential in developing their careers, with several starting their own companies and many more becoming business professionals within the bioscience sector.

More information can be found at the website. The closing date for entries is June 18th.

This is a really great opportunity for anyone working in the biosciences who is interested in finding out about commercialisation of biotechnology. While I was a PhD students at Leeds I took part in the 2002 (or 2003 maybe) competition. My team attended a local workshop in Edinburgh, where we spent a hectic but amazing few days attending presentations from business and biotech experts, and staying up until all hours putting together our business plan and presentation. We didn't make it through to the final unfortunately, but I learned so much from those few days, both about commercialisation of biotechnology research and about myself and what I am capable of. All in all it was an amazing experience, and one of the most memorable parts of my PhD.

"The Engaging Researcher"

2010-05-17T15:56:00.004+01:00

Are you interested in engaging the public in your research but not sure where to start?

Have you done some public engagement activity but would like to improve your knowledge and skills?

Do you have significant experience of achieving mutually beneficial public engagement activity but want to improve your practice?

This one-day event in Manchester on 6th July is aimed at researchers with any level of experience of public engagement. The day will include presentations from key-note speakers and the chance to attend several short workshops based around different areas of public engagement. You will also have an opportunity to start to develop a public engagement project together with exhibitors who will be present on the day, and apply for funding of £1000 to get the activity off the ground.

This event is run by Vitae, and is free to attend. More details and booking information can be found here.

Leadership in Action - Residential Course

2010-04-13T14:47:00.003+01:00

From 8-11th June Vitae are running a residential Leadership course for PhD students in Bournemouth. This event was also run last year and was very successful, so if you're interested in attending book soon! Places are free, you just need to pay for your own transport.

More details can be found here. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity (and also a chance to spend a few days by the sea!).

New issue of GradBritain

2010-03-04T09:28:00.002Z

The Spring issue of GradBritain is now available to download. This quarterly magazine is published by Vitae and is written for and by PhD students. The latest issue has articles on funding your PhD, the link between research students and the NUS, overcoming "second-year blues" and much more. It also contains details of how to contribute to forthcoming issues of the magazine.

Upcoming external events

2010-02-26T13:41:00.004Z

Digital researcher: Managing your networks and building your profile

The British Library and Vitae are running a one day event on 15 March 2010 exploring the use of Web 2.0 in research, networks and building researchers own profiles. This is being held at the British Library and is free for all postgraduate researchers and research staff. It will include presentations and interactive sessions on subjects such as microblogging, RSS feeds, social networking and social citation sharing.
More information and booking can be found on the Vitae site.

Careers in focus: Careers in academia

This one-day event is being held in Manchester on the 30th March. It is free for all postgraduate researchers, but a refundable deposit of £25 is required to secure a place.

The day will provide participants with an insight into some of the areas that make up a career in academia.

Participants have the opportunity to:

meet with current academics from a range of disciplines to hear about their experiences of an academic career 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

More details and booking on the Vitae site.

Managing your Research Career - useful videos

2010-02-25T12:00:00.003Z

On the University Affairs website (a Canadian site) there is a set of videos in which Jo Van Every, a PhD in sociology from the University of Essex and former program officer with the Standard Research Grants program at SSHRC, gives tips on prioritizing research tasks, planning a long-term program of research, developing a publication strategy, building a support network for research, and carving out time to do research in a busy, multi-focused position.

Junk the Jargon - The Final!

2010-02-04T11:11:00.006Z

The final of the Junk the Jargon competition was last Wednesday, 27th Jan (apologies for the delay in posting this!), and I was really pleased with how well the whole event went. The ten finalists, who had three minutes each to entertain the audience by talking about their research, all did an amazing job, and on top of that we had a packed and appreciative audience, a panel of very experienced expert judges and generally a great atmosphere.

The winner was Claire Sarell from the School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, who entertained the audience with her talk "What causes Alzheimer's disease?". Runners-up were Katie Lidster, who used cuddly mouse models to illustrate her presentation on "How do mice with green eyes contribute to MS research?", and Rebecca Burgell who also used very inventive props in her delightfully titled talk "CODE BROWN/CODE RED!!! Causes of constipation".

More information about the event can be found on the QM news site, and a video of the event can be seen here.

Events coming up at the British Library

2010-01-19T17:18:00.002Z

I have posted before about the Postgraduate Training Days that the British Library run, but I just wanted to draw your attention to two that are coming up at the beginning of February.

1st Feb: English (19th Century - Present Day)

9th Feb: History (Medieval - 18th Century)

If your research is in either of these areas you can attend these days for free. The aims of them are:

* To introduce you to the range of research materials available in the British Library
*To offer special curator sessions and workshops in a range of topics
*To show you how to access the catalogues, and carry out bibliographic research on your topic
*To introduce you to specialist curators at the Library
*To give you an opportunity to network with postgraduate students from other universities across the UK
*The day will contribute to national subject-specific and generic research skills training

More details and booking can be found here.

Help teachers bring real science into schools!

2010-01-14T13:00:00.001Z

This is a new project designed to help secondary science teachers bring contemporary science and real scientific data into their classes through collaboration with researchers. The project gives researchers the opportunity to communicate their science to a public audience and could lead to longer-term associations between the researchers' institution and schools.

Each researcher would work with one or two individual teachers and interact with them via a website. The aim would be to work with the teachers to develop a classroom resource using the researcher's data.

Anticipated time commitments would be 1 hour/week for 12 weeks.

Participating researchers would be required to provide:

A short written account of their research
A sample data set that could be used by students
A short video biography explaining their career path (if possible)
Science Learning Centres are initially looking for researchers to become involved in the pilot programme in spring 2010. Researchers who would like to know more or who are interested in taking part should email the external contact at freshscience@slcs.ac.uk.

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

2010-01-08T13:48:00.001Z

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

2009-12-04T11:56:00.004Z

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 27^th 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 13^th Jan, 5pm in Peoples Palace lecture theatre 1.

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

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

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

Graduate Entry Medicine - a chance to find out more

2009-12-01T15:23:00.002Z

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.

The Researcher development framework consultation - Have your say!

2009-11-12T11:48:00.002Z

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.

What are you getting from your PhD?

2009-10-19T11:46:00.002+01:00

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.

Welcome to Queen Mary!

2009-10-02T14:49:00.004+01:00

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.

Opportunities for Science & Engineering PhD students

2009-09-22T10:05:00.004+01:00

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.

Get ready for Impact!

2009-09-11T16:44:00.002+01:00

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.

Job hunting in a recession

2009-08-26T11:30:00.002+01:00

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.

Training days at the British Library

2009-08-04T11:23:00.002+01:00

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.

Summer GRADBritain magazine available

2009-07-24T11:19:00.003+01:00

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.

Researcher careers and recession

2009-07-16T12:10:00.002+01:00

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!

Prizes for Social Science Researchers

2009-07-13T10:17:00.002+01:00

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.

Opportunities to carry out research in Japan

2009-06-29T10:58:00.002+01:00

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.

Science on-line

2009-06-17T17:32:00.002+01:00

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!

Leadership in action - free course!

2009-06-12T14:19:00.003+01:00

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!

Social Science Work Experience Programme

2009-06-04T15:28:00.002+01:00

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.

"Real Life of a PhD Student" Blog

2009-05-27T13:07:00.002+01:00

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"!

Pitch Your Idea 2009 - Photos at last!

2009-05-15T13:31:00.015+01:00

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.

Graduate School Survival Guide

2009-05-07T14:51:00.004+01:00

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.

Careers in Academia - Vitae Event

2009-04-21T10:56:00.004+01:00

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.

Are you working on Human Centred Technology?

2009-04-15T14:34:00.001+01:00

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.

Spring issue of GRADBritain out

2009-04-07T09:43:00.005+01:00

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.

Researchers needed!

2009-03-31T10:31:00.003+01:00

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.

FameLab

2009-03-24T12:48:00.003Z

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.

Biotechnology YES

2009-03-17T10:09:00.003Z

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!

Perspectives - A poster competition with a difference

2009-03-06T16:07:00.001Z

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.

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

2009-03-02T16:11:00.002Z

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!

Career Pathways day for final year PhDs and post-docs

2009-02-16T09:54:00.001Z

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

2009-02-16T09:52:00.002Z

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

Internship opportunities for research students at the British Academy

2009-02-10T10:02:00.002Z

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.

Business Plan Competition - Montreal

2009-02-09T13:42:00.003Z

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.

Opportunity for third year Social Science PhD students

2009-02-05T12:09:00.002Z

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.

A chance to highlight your skills to employers

2009-02-03T10:27:00.003Z

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.

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2008 - Results

2009-01-28T12:27:00.006Z

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.

New careers website for Arts & Humanities PhD students

2009-01-22T16:17:00.002Z

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

2009-01-22T15:05:00.006Z

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!

Upcoming courses

2009-01-19T10:21:00.004Z

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.

Intrapreneurship - more than a typo!

2009-01-16T14:49:00.003Z

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

UK GRADschools

2009-01-09T15:29:00.004Z

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

2009-01-09T14:41:00.002Z

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!

2009-01-09T14:06:00.002Z

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!