Researcher Development Programme (RDP) course timetable
Thursday 31 October 2024
| 14:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 14:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
Friday 1 November 2024
| 11:00 |
Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are integral to effective and impactful public engagement. Effective public engagement requires intentional and thoughtful interactions with relevant parties, such as your intended audiences and engagement partners. This means public engagement that is accessible, inclusive and relevant to your audiences and engagement partners context. In this course, we introduce and explore EDI concepts and guidelines for public engagement that can help you achieve this. This course will be led by Dr. Tana Joseph, Public Engagement and Impact Manager for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. |
| 12:30 |
This workshop is tailored for postgraduate researchers interested in applying for small-scale funding opportunities, such as attending conferences or organizing events. Geared towards those with limited or no prior experience, it covers the essential considerations of the funding application process, and includes a hands-on exercise to provide practical insights into evaluating funding applications. |
Monday 4 November 2024
| 15:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 15:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 16:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 16:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
Tuesday 5 November 2024
| 09:00 |
Shut Up and Write
Finished
Come to the Student Services Centre and settle down to enjoy some focused writing time. These sessions will run once a week throughout the Academic Writing Month, in November and are two hours long. Tea and coffee will be provided. |
| 10:00 |
Starting your PhD (STEMM)
Finished
You are beginning one of the most exciting, yet challenging programmes of your academic career. You have entered a new lab, with a new supervisor, new lab colleagues and a new project. This workshop will explore what it means to do a PhD, think about how to establish meaningful student-supervisor relationships, and how to plan for a productive PhD project. |
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Have you ever wanted to get creative with your research? To discover how writing can bring a new perspective to your work? How your words can engage with new audiences about the academic research that you are passionate about? This training will enable you to develop creative ways by which you can use writing to engage with the public; providing you with the resources to be more confident in developing and sharing creative writing responses to your area of research. The course will introduce creative writing for poetry and prose, and textual writing for exhibition / display. It will discuss developing writing for performance. The aim is to work with you to bring out the creative responses that lay within your own work. There will be the opportunity to receive written feedback throughout the week, and to discuss your work in a 1-to-1 session with the course tutor (if requested in advance). The training will be led by David Cain. David’s most recent book, Truth Street, was shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prizes for Poetry (2019). David brings his writing experience together with a passion for public engagement - he currently leads the delivery of the Cambridge Festival. |
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| 14:00 |
Getting Published in a Journal I: Writing for Publication (Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences)
Finished
This is the first of three workshops designed to develop your understanding of the technicalities and the process of getting your research published. In this workshop, we examine the technical aspects of writing up your research in a format appropriate for publication. You will learn about the importance of following journal guidelines and house style, and the value of using a clear structure to frame your paper. You will also receive guidance on how to produce clear writing in a register appropriate for the readership. It is possible to attend this course as an individual workshop, although we would encourage you to attend the second and third workshops in the series Getting Published in a journal 2: submitting and Getting Published in a journal 3: Impact. |
Wednesday 6 November 2024
| 10:00 |
Writing at postgraduate level isn’t simply about, well, writing – it’s a complex cognitive activity which involves you juggling a whole host of balls at once. But one of the main reasons it’s hard is that at postgraduate level you’re basically creating knowledge, which is no mean feat. Even seasoned academics find it challenging – they have just developed a range of strategies and coping mechanisms to make it that bit more manageable. So, in this session, we’ll first start by taking a small step back, just to consider why it’s hard – before taking a look at a couple of things that experience has shown me it is helpful to focus on right from the start so as to make the whole process that bit easier: firstly, the fact that English is a writer-responsible language (and we’ll be looking at what this is, why it’s important (especially if English isn’t your first language), and what this means for written communication in English); and secondly, and in some ways stemming from the first point, the importance of structure – at all levels and in all things. |
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Working with your Supervisor
Finished
The student-supervisor relationship is vital for success in all research degree programmes. However, the exact role of the supervisor is often unclear and sometimes it may feel as though you are not getting the support you need. This can be frustrating for students and supervisors alike, and can lead to a negative doctoral experience. |
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| 13:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that email does not go to your spam folder. |
| 13:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 14:00 |
Welcome to your Doctorate
Finished
Welcome to Cambridge! This 2 hour workshop will provide incoming doctoral students with essential information and resources that will help them navigate the complexities of doctoral research, foster productive relationships, and take advantage of the educational and developmental opportunities available to them during their studies. You will have the opportunity to hear from Postgraduate Education and Development team, Careers, Public Engagement, Research Integrity, Wellbeing, University Library and more. This is also an excellent opportunity to meet fellow PhD students from outside their Department/Faculty. By the end of this session, students should feel more settled and confident in taking their first steps into doctoral research. Please note, this event is intended to complement local Departmental and Faculty inductions and also RD workshops such as ‘Starting your PhD’ or ‘Working with your Supervisor’. |
Thursday 7 November 2024
| 10:00 |
Striking the balance between good writing and following best academic practice through referencing can be a bit of a headache. In this session, we will demonstrate how referencing can help you structure your work as well as sharing techniques to support you in keeping your writing process flowing without any extra stress when it comes to submitting your thesis. We will provide a live demonstration of the reference management tool Zotero to give you an idea of how tools can do some of the heavy lifting for you. |
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This workshop is aimed at breaking the stereotype of an academic essay as a purely scholastic and tedious endeavour, devoid of such assumingly ‘literary’, elements as plot, narrative, denouement, metaphor, hyperbole, sound and rhythm, etc. My own experience shows that most of the guidelines, principles, and attitudes generally associated with the popular literary genre of ‘creative non-fiction’, can be successfully applied to academic writing at its best. This centres on mastering the essential ‘Five Cs’: Clarity, Coherence, Continuity, Concision and Cadence.
This training is provided free of charge to postgraduate researchers, however, the cost of providing the course is £30 per participant. |
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| 13:30 |
This course seeks to help students develop their critical reading skills, and to deploy tactics and strategies that can accelerate the process of literature-based research without sacrificing detail and depth necessary for a doctoral thesis. |
| 14:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 14:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
Friday 8 November 2024
| 09:30 |
So much of research success relies on collaborations and professional networks. But many of us undersell ourselves and our achievements, or struggle to fit our whole career into a cohesive narrative. This is where personal branding comes in. In this training, you’ll learn how to define your personal brand, and communicate that effectively through writing, presenting, images, websites and social media. You’ll do exercises which will help you see yourself from an outsider’s perspective, and be given the tools to make you the hero of your own story. Dr Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, presenter, comedian and storyteller based in London. She’s a materials generalist, equally fascinated by metals, plastics, ceramics, glasses and substances from the natural world. Her work centres around engaging traditionally underserved audiences with materials science and engineering through writing, podcasting, presenting and social media. Having developed her own unique blend of autobiographical scientific storytelling in her first book, Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through Making, she now trains professional technical people to communicate what they do better, through the study of story. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and is an ultra-endurance open water swimmer. Oh, and it’s pronounced “Por-shy-ski”. |
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This ONLINE writing retreat is designed to offer structured sessions of academic writing for PhD students with autism and ADHD. You do NOT need to have a diagnosis to attend this retreat. If you feel like you would benefit from an online workspace that accommodates neurodivergence, please come along! The session will be run on a Discord server which allows you to engage both on video, and via text chat. Before the event, you will be sent instructions for how to join, both in written format and as a video. You can also take a look at the Discord website beforehand, if you like: https://discord.com/ We start the day with an introduction that discusses the kinds of challenges that Autism and ADHD can present in doctoral research, as well as strengths they confer. This is followed by discussion sessions on finding adaptive ways to work when handling executive dysfunction, or issues with your environment. The rest of the day is dedicated to writing, with short sessions to test out new ways to approach your work. A full schedule for the day will be sent out at least a week in advance. |
Monday 11 November 2024
| 09:30 |
This workshop, co-hosted by CCTL and the Postdoc Academy, will be delivered by Fred Lewsey & Tom Almeroth-Williams from the University’s Research Communications team, and offers a practical guide to communicating research to the broadest possible audiences via the mainstream media. The session will take you behind the scenes of the processes and tactics used to get University research into the media, from identifying a potential news story in a forthcoming research paper, book or event, to responding to emerging coverage. Topics covered will include: how University press officers work; what makes for an effective media release; using assets including images; distributing releases and pitching to journalists; what to expect from any coverage; organising media visits and photo calls; giving interviews and seeking corrections. The session will include practical tasks as well as an opportunity to ask questions and share experiences. Fred is primarily responsible for the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Tom for the School of Arts & Humanities. They have worked on hundreds of stories spanning a huge range of research across the sciences, social sciences, medical research and the humanities. They have secured thousands of media reports around the world, including with the BBC, Guardian, New York Times, NPR, Le Monde, Die Welt, El Pais and The Times of India. Recent highlight stories have included Neanderthal reconstructions, AI ‘griefbots’, chimpanzee warfare, Beethoven’s DNA, French love letters, medieval stand-up comedy, the Verona astrolabe.
Tea, coffee, water, & biscuits will be provided. |
| 12:00 |
This short course is designed to get you thinking about how to make and maintain a network as a PhD researcher – what is important to you, and how do you build an effective network that helps you to be the best researcher you can be? If you find this course helpful, you may also be interested in our ‘Becoming Interdisciplinary’ course, which takes a theoretical look at the challenges and opportunities presented by interdisciplinary research. |
| 15:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 15:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 16:00 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |
| 16:30 |
Public Engagement: Drop-in Sessions
Finished
A series of 30-minute drop-in sessions to talk with a member of the Public Engagement team. We offer expert advice to support your public engagement work, engagement processes and activities. These include:
These sessions are not workshops or taught sessions. Based on your area of expertise and depending on your School affiliation, you can book a time with one of our public engagement professionals:
The team will be available every week, each mentor offering two sessions of 30 minutes in the day and time indicated above. We will release new slots in the same days and times a couple of months in advance. Please book for the day and time you would like to attend, and you will receive closer to the session the Teams link to meet with the mentor. The link will be sent by RDP Course Administrator. Please make sure that that e-mail does not go to your spam folder. |