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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.