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The Two-Day writing retreat is designed to offer structured sessions of academic writing for PhD students who wish to come and work in a supportive environment, and discuss strategies for good working practices that accommodate neurodivergence. You do NOT need to have a confirmed diagnosis to attend this retreat.

We start the first day with an introduction that discusses the kinds of challenges that Autism and ADHD can present in doctoral research, as well as strengths. 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 first day is dedicated to writing, with short sessions to test out new ways to approach your work. The second day will be a dedicated writing retreat, with time in a comfortable environment to crack on with some writing! A full schedule for the two days will be sent out at least a week in advance.

You will be writing alongside fellow graduate students. There will be a ‘quiet room’ and a ‘noisy room’ to accommodate various working styles/activities, and attendees are welcome to bring along any fidget objects etc. that would normally help them focus. We will also bring a selection of these to try out!

If you have attended before you are very welcome to come again – feel free to skip the introductory talk or just go get settled in the ‘quiet room’ to start your work.

Lastly, tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided, but you will need to arrange your own lunch.

Across all AHSS disciplines (and within) there are varying views of what research is. Though not a definitive means by which to conceptualize research, this course offers Thomas Kuhn’s idea of the ‘research paradigm’ as a heuristic and expedient entry point into key terms and concepts often encountered by research students and the tacit assumptions underpinning them. This can and often does result in an ability to understand the significance of one’s own research, the research of others and the broader intellectual context in which both are situated.

The course is especially useful for those who feel less comfortable with the ‘common terminology’ (such as ‘ontology’, ‘epistemology’ etc.) and are perhaps apprehensive of asking colleagues and/or supervisors.

Please note, this is a theory-heavy session

This workshop will cover key themes relating to procrastination. Participants are encouraged to reflect and share experiences with others and take part in discussion groups and activities. The session covers the common causes of procrastination, how to recognise personal procrastination traits and techniques to dig deep to find the real cause of procrastination in order to banish it for good.

This is an in-person event.

This training will introduce you to the world of visual communication. We will look at visualising data versus visualising abstract concepts and think about appropriateness! How can you simplify a huge body of research into something that is visually enticing to people outside of your field? In this training you will learn how to create visual metaphors that illustrate your research as well as the basics of frame by frame and stop motion animation so that you may turn these illustrations into short animated gifs.

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.

A session for those who have been to the Introduction to Evaluation session but would like further support on getting their evaluation right. Do you have questions about what methods to use? How to make your results reliable? How to report on your findings? Submit your questions or concerns in advance of the session for tailored support

Would you like to find out what audiences think about your activity but want to try something other than a questionnaire? Want to move beyond ‘any other comments’? In this session, find out about alternative evaluation techniques used in the University of Cambridge Museums, and how you could apply them to your own situation.

Sarah-Jane Harknett co-ordinates evaluation projects across the University of Cambridge Museums. Alongside this role, she also heads up the Public Engagement programmes at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

This training will introduce researchers to the importance of quality public and patient involvement in their research and look at current best practice. You will find out about local support available in the region to help plan, deliver and build PPI into research, so as to improve research for patients, services users, and carers. The session will include examples and case studies of how local researchers have incorporated PPI into their research.

The training will be led by Dr Amanda Stranks, the PPI/E Strategy Lead at NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

We’ll be looking at the what, why and how of public engagement and introducing you to ways to plan an effective public engagement project. Topics:

• The what: definitions of public engagement, who are the public, what activities count as engagement, what are the goals?
• The why: University commitment to PE, REF, Funders
• The how: the Logic Model approach to planning PE, practical considerations, moving engagement online and opportunities at the University.

This course will be led by Dr Lucinda Spokes, Head of Public Engagement.

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”.

Engaging young people with your research can be very worthwhile and rewarding. This training session will support you with your public engagement work with schools by introducing you to the UK school system and discussing how public engagement work can fit with existing school priorities. We will consider ways in which your work can make an impact and briefly consider how public engagement can work with underrepresented groups and contribute to diversity and inclusion initiatives. You’ll be introduced to ways in which the University already works with schools to provide you with ideas for collaboration. Lastly, we’ll begin to think about how to plan and design activities suitable for school audiences.

At the end of this session, you’ll hopefully feel more confident about how to work effectively with schools and can start thinking about your own public engagement work. The group session will be followed by the opportunity for a one-to-one 15-minute session with the trainer where you can discuss your projects, ideas and questions and get project specific help.

This course will be led by Diogo Martins Gomes. Diogo is a Public Engagement and Communications Manager at the University of Cambridge with experience of working in the higher education industry.

We love a plan! In our Introduction to Public Engagement course, we introduced you to planning using a logic model. In this practical session, we’ll use this tool in exercises that will allow you to think about why you want to engage, the outcomes and impact you want to achieve, who you want to engage with and how to reach them.

We’ll look at how to run your project efficiently and how you might evaluate to learn and evidence your success. We’ll also consider the places you run events in, the resources you might need, tips on event planning and how you can make your engagement more inclusive.

You don’t need to come with a plan, we’ll start with hypothetical challenges to spark thoughts and ideas and share learning together.

The course will be run by members of the Public Engagement team - Lucinda Spokes, Selen Etingu, Diogo Gomes and Claudia Antolini. As part of this course, we will provide information on how we support public engagement across the University.

Are you an academic, researcher or PhD candidate who would like to build a media profile and take your research to a global public audience by writing for The Conversation?

The Conversation is a news analysis and opinion website with content written by academics working with professional journalists. It is an open access, independent media charity funded by more than 80 UK and European universities.

In this interactive session we'll take you through what The Conversation is - our origins and aims; what we do and why.

We’ll look at why you should communicate your research to the public and take you through The Conversation’s unique, collaborative editorial process.

We’ll give you tips on style, tone and structure (with examples), look at how to pitch (with examples) and look at different approaches and article types.

• To book your space head over to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/university-of-cambridge-the-conversation-media-training-registration-636401392697

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.

Getting published is a central part of being a researcher. Understanding where and why to publisht is crucial to developing an effective stragegy that will help you realise your research and/or career ambitions.

With this in mind, the workshop explores strategy around the question of ‘high impact’, and the various meanings (formal and informal) this implies, the limitations of impact metrics and the importance of understanding publishing cultures across academia, and how these vary..

Getting published is a central part of being a researcher. Peer-reviewed publications allow researchers to communicate their research to the broader research community, and thus, contribute to the body of work within their field.

This workshop is part 2 of 3, and concerns the process of peer-review manuscript preparation and the submital process, including peer-review.

This is the first of two 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 workshop in the series Getting published II: Impact and Peer-review.

This interactive workshop will support participants to make the most of short periods of study, admin, teaching preparation or research time. Participants work together to create a personalised plan of action combining High Intensity Productivity (HIP) with focused goal setting. The session considers the biggest reasons for procrastination and participants learn how to break larger research, teaching, admin and study activities in to manageable and achievable tasks. The session benefits from integrated protected self-development time to trial the tools learned in the session.

There is also the opportunity to reflect on how participants will implement their learning in order to make the most of future opportunities and avoid procrastination.

“The whole course was useful, the delivery in terms of sharing with others and actually completing activities (productive work) made it a great experience. The practical as well as theoretical made you realise you can actually do better.”

PhD Researcher and Clinician, University of Leicester 2020

Do you feel like there are never enough hours in the day to complete your research project? Are you struggling to balance your work and personal life while still making progress towards your career goals? Look no further than this course on Effective Time and Project Management for Postgraduate Research Students.

This course aims to equip you with the tools and techniques required to effectively manage your time and research projects. Through interactive lectures and practical exercises, you will learn how to prioritize tasks, manage your workload, and develop effective time management strategies that can be applied to any research project.

With a focus on project management, this course will cover topics such as setting SMART goals, developing project timelines, and identifying and managing project risks. Additionally, you will learn how to identify time-wasters, manage interruptions, and optimize your work environment for maximum productivity.

Research in the 21st century is global, and research teams are intercultural. 35% of Cambridge research students are from outside the EU; and postdocs are the most diverse group by nationality, representing almost 100 countries. This diversity is one of the University’s biggest strengths. Yet intercultural communication is not without its pitfalls and misunderstandings. It takes conscious discipline to think about one’s own cultural assumptions and to try to make sense of others'.

This workshop will give you some tools to help identify where national culture might be having an influence on your professional and social interactions, where common misunderstandings can occur, and how to address potential challenges. The content of the session is informed by research form intercultural studies and refers to culture as a framework of shared values, attitudes and behaviours. It explores the nature of generalisations and the relationship between national culture, other layers of diversity (e g gender, professional, generational differences) and personal values.

A recommended course by the Researcher Development Programme as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The course can be accessed here.

A curated collection of recommended courses by Researcher Development as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The collection can be accessed here.

A curated collection of recommended courses by Researcher Development as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The collection can be accessed here.

A curated collection of recommended courses by Researcher Development as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The collection can be accessed here.

A curated collection of recommended courses by Researcher Development as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The collection can be accessed here.