Graduate School of Life Sciences course timetable

Introduction to Fellowships What is a Fellowship? Why are they useful? What could a Fellowship mean to your career? How do you create a successful application? Introducing Narrative CVs for researchers – how to share your professional and personal research contributions so that others will care as much as you do.

This session introduces participants to the concept of research data, all the forms that it can take as well as negotiating the management of different data depending on their type.

Topics such as effective storage, handling sensitive data, and developing best practice approaches to avoid data loss during a project will be covered. The session will also explore how to create a data management plan (DMP) and the support available, as well as providing an overview of useful tools and services both within the University of Cambridge and beyond.

What are you good at vs what are you good for

What are you good at vs What are you good for? How to share the benefits of your research effectively with those who can benefit from and influence your impact. Establishing why your research is a good fit so you can position it successfully with the best host institution / programme / funder.

Persuasive Research Presentations and Pitches

Using the Research Canvas and Pitching Canvas to design and deliver an impactful message. These are useful, interactive tools to help you articulate your ideas, persuade your audience and outline the benefits of your skills, your research and your impact.

Led by "Sense About Science," participants will gain an understanding of how to approach writing a policy brief and why it needs to be different from an academic paper. We will provide a policy briefing template and guide ECRs through how they should approach each section – key findings, context, policy recommendations, plus language and tone – to get maximum engagement from policy makers.

The second session is made up of group work and discussions so that participants can start thinking practically about how to approach policy engagement in their domain. We will work through policy engagement exercises, for example a zooming out exercise (what issues can you comment on, where can you lend your voice) and stakeholder mapping exercises (identify your policy maker and opinion-forming audience). Depending on the mix of participants, we will decide whether participants will be grouped according to research topic or kept in mixed groups.

In this fun and interactive session Dr Steve Cross will help you develop the ways you talk about your work, and the ways you connect with people who might be able to help you. We'll look at how networking can make your working life easier and more rewarding, and come up with some strategies that suit you and your interests.

Fellowship Interview Guidance

What happens in a Fellowship interview? What questions can you expect? What answers are they looking for? Explaining and establishing your development needs to make the most of your Fellowship to your best advantage.