Postdoc Academy course timetable

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

In the increasingly competitive field of fellowship funding, your applications need to stand out immediately.

During this online masterclass for early career researchers, you'll learn key considerations for preparing a strong fellowship application. 

The session will explore:

• desirability, feasibility and viability
• what’s important to the funder
• elements of successful applications
• how to plan for impact.

It will consist of a 60-minute talk, followed by 30 minutes for you to ask questions.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

As you progress in your career, you will have to navigate the transition from being managed and supervised by others, to taking on leadership of projects and people for the first time.

Using our own experience of leadership, along with discussion and theories, we will look at a variety of aspects of successful leadership within the research and innovation context.

This workshop will provide an opportunity for you to:

• think about your aims in terms of leadership
• take stock of your own leadership attributes and experience
• identify how to further develop your research and innovation leadership potential.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Our core values define what is most important to us, but few of us spend time consciously exploring these.

Understanding whether our goals, aspirations, decisions and actions align with our values can help us to identify what motivates us. This can also help us understand when and why we experience joy or frustration in our day-to-day lives.

In this interactive virtual workshop, you will be given time and space to:

• reflect on your personal values and what is important to you
• consider how you can better satisfy these values in your work and personal life
• support (and receive support from) your peers.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

The root cause for 20% of those who suffer from chronic procrastination is perfectionism. Other causes include overwhelm and over complexity of your workload.

This workshop will help you better understand and create mechanisms to manage the experience and impact of procrastination and perfectionism.

During this workshop, you will:

• understand your root causes of procrastination
• try out three different approaches to overcome procrastination
• understand how you can manage the downside of perfectionism.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the course to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

Do you worry about conflict and disagreement in your team? Do you use strategies to avoid conflict? Do you want to better understand how groups and teams function in order to improve your productivity?

Conflict and disagreement are a natural and inevitable part of group development. What’s important is how this is dealt with.

In this workshop, you will have the opportunity to:

• learn about some key theories on group/team development
• examine strategies to address disagreement in a way which enables you to achieve your team’s goals
• look at some real-world conflict scenarios and apply strategies
• work on a situation from your own context and get feedback.

This workshop is for anyone who works as part of a team and wants to better understand how teams function, or if you are an aspiring team leader looking for strategies to manage teams.

This session runs termly. If you would like to be notified of future iterations of this session, please add yourself to the waitlist or register your interest.

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

How can you make your research proposition stand out in a competitive funding landscape?

In the business and start up world, the Business Model Canvas tool is used to help companies work out how they will create, deliver and capture value. The research canvas is an adaptation of this and helps researchers plan and present their case for applying for research funding.

In this workshop, you will learn to use the Research Canvas. You will also have the opportunity to submit your research canvas after the workshop for personalised feedback.

This workshop will:

• demonstrate the utility of an entrepreneurial tool in a research context
• enable you to implement a tool for planning and presenting your research
• give you opportunities to share your ideas and receive feedback from peers and facilitators.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This masterclass will introduce you to a range of core project management principles which you can apply within your research projects to more effectively plan and monitor your activities.

In this 3-hour online session, you will:

• examine how to define the scope of a research project, including the delivery of outputs, impact and knowledge exchange
• discuss how to engage and manage the expectations of stakeholders to enable smooth project delivery
• explore how your planning and monitoring of research projects is shaped by your methodologies and the expectations of funders
• learn to use key planning, risk management and monitoring tools to effectively manage research projects
• identify your own challenges in managing research projects and discuss ways to overcome them.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

This short, interactive session will introduce the fundamental principles of Lean - a methodology which prioritises continuous improvement and respect for people.

Lean is a philosophy and way of working which removes waste from activities and ensures that emphasis is given to tasks that provide added value. Originally developed by Toyota, it is now widely used across many sectors including the NHS and Higher Education.

During this masterclass for postdocs, you will:

• gain a high-level understanding of continuous improvement tools and techniques, and how you can apply them
• develop skills to identify and remove waste in your day-to-day activities to become more effective and efficient.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list?

Our online retreats give you time, peace, and space to think and write. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges, and work in a focused way using the Pomodoro technique.

These virtual retreats are being hosted collaboratively across several institutions to encourage researchers across career stages and institutions to come together in a sustainable writing environment.

The retreats will take place several times per month throughout the academic year and you can attend as many as you like (within booking limits for each session).

Please note: It is important that when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, click on Add to Calendar to start the process of importing the course appointment to your calendar.

Creativity is thought to be associated with the arts, less so with research. Science is perceived as factual, rational and methodical. The scientific process is by nature very methodical - an experiment is designed to test a hypothesis - some would argue that this process doesn't leave much room for creativity.

Yet where does the hypothesis come from in the first place? How do you make sense of data that don’t fit the initial hypothesis? How can you assemble the pieces of a scientific puzzle to write a coherent research article?

Researchers do need a great deal of mental agility, a capacity to navigate complex ideas, and the ability to view things from multiple perspectives in order to succeed. In other words, a researcher’s creativity is an integral part of their work.

This workshop will start with a discussion on the nature of creativity and the role of intuition in research. Participants will then engage in a series of playful and creative activities to better assess their abilities, gain confidence and understand what promotes and hinders their own creativity.

At the end of the training, you will be able to:

• silence your inner critic
• give space to your own creativity
• enjoy the playfulness of creativity
• co-create and be a better team player.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

This is one of the formal development opportunities that you can engage with as part of your minimum 10 days (pro rata) of professional development under the Researcher Development Concordat (2019). To learn more about the Concordat, the responsibilities of the University and its research staff therein, please visit our Professional Development Guidance page.

The Postdoc Academy provides welcome events specific to postdocs joining the University of Cambridge - these are open to postdocs affiliated with the University, Colleges and University Partner Institutes.

These sessions include presentations from the Postdoc Academy, PdOC and Careers Service, followed by a Q&A and then networking.

You will be given information on how to navigate life as a researcher in Cambridge and then have the opportunity to network with other new postdocs and University services.

During the session, postdocs will learn about:

• interacting with the Postdoc Academy
• attending professional development activities and accessing the Careers Service
• connecting to the wider postdoc community at Cambridge
• accessing resources available to postdocs as staff members.

Please note: when you book this course, on the booking confirmation page, select Add to Calendar to start importing the appointment to your calendar.

If you have any questions or problems with signing-up, please email events.pda@admin.cam.ac.uk.