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Doctoral College Blog

Welcome to the September edition of the ECR newsletter. We hope that you are all safe and well and enjoyed your summer. This ECR newsletter includes opportunities which might be of relevance to you.  You may be interested to view the newly designed ECR Brochure which encompasses all the information that an Early Career Researcher needs.

We are putting together a series of online Autumn ECR Training dates, which will be published as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail at: researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.

21 - 25 September 2020

National Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) is a celebration of the fantastic contribution postdocs and researchers make towards research and academic life in general. It's a special time to showcase, recognise, and celebrate your efforts, and thank you for all you do!

In order to make this an event to remember, we are asking for individual profiles so that we can celebrate as many postdocs as possible together with your successes.  If you'd like to submit your profile for inclusion on the website and twitter please contact researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk for a template.  Deadline to return profile is 10 September 2020.

This year Exeter has become involved and are holding a 'Giant Coffee Virtual Event' on Thursday 24 September 2020 from 12 noon - 2 pm.  If you'd like to join in and help celebrate researchers' achievements, contact researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.

E-Card - Thank You!

Don't forget .... to show your appreciation to a colleague you can use the University's E-'Thank You' Card which can be accessed here.  It doesn't cost anything but is guaranteed to make someone's day!

Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager, is undertaking an initial scoping study interviewing early career academics/those new to supervision about the impact of their experiences as a PGR on their supervisory practice. This will focus particularly on their relationship with their supervisory team, and any training and development activities they undertook as a PGR. Kelly is looking for participants to take part in semi-structured interviews to info an initial conference paper at the Researcher Education and Development Scholarship conference in October, with the intention to undertake a large national project informed by this initial data collection. If you would be interested in being interviewed as part of this study, please contact Kelly on k.preece@exeter.ac.uk.

This survey researches the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic upon Early Career Researchers. Following Covid-19, as the university sector responds to a loss in income, the termination of contracts and change in workload might interact with existing problems relating to fixed-term contracts and gender inequalities in academia. The collision of these circumstances with the Covid-19 pandemic will be the subject of this study.

Start the survey here.

This survey is conducted on behalf of the Women's Budget Group (WBG), an independent think tank of academics, activists and campaigners whose aim is to analyse gender impacts of economic, fiscal and social policy in the UK and promote gender equality.

If you would be interested in sharing your experiences by taking part in an interview (likely to last 30-40 minutes), please contact Emily.marsay@wbg.org.uk.  The interview will offer an opportunity for women in academia to anonymously and confidentially speak up about the impact that COVID-19, and their university's response to this, has had upon their lives.

Learnsmart

Learnsmart is a great online resource offering learning and tips on topics such as managing people and teams, leadership and strategy, etc. You can access this by clicking here (single sign in required).

Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) Programme

The LTHE course is designed to meet the specific needs of educators who are either new to teaching altogether or are new to teaching in HE (particularly HE within the UK). Its target audience include educators on research-only contracts and professional services staff who facilitate learning. The programme provides an introduction to the core concepts and techniques of teaching in HE, and aims to give teachers an understanding of how to provide an active, stimulating student-centred learning experience. For more details click here.

Online Fistral Training now available

Fistral Training have developed a suite of online resources which you can tap into (FREE to access during the Covid-19 crisis). Their 'Espresso' range of bitesize 5 minute videos offer topics which focus on Project Management and are aimed at PhD/PGR and Early Career Researchers. Each video is circa 5 minutes long, and although presented in the context of research, the tools, tips and techniques are equally useful in any project and across any industry or sector.

The Exeter Data Analytics Hub offer a range of workshops on data science, data visualisation, and open science best practice. The workshops are taught by ECRs and are aimed to be an interactive learning environment. They encourage discussion and also offer an opportunity to generate cross-disciplinary research ideas and foster new collaborations.

This is our third year running these workshops and we seek your input to shape the future content and training opportunities we offer within our research community.

Link to survey here.

FREE Online Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium - extended contribution deadline - 16 September 2020.

Plans are well underway for DSDS20, which this year will be held as a virtual event for the first time on 10 November 2020 (10 am - 4 pm). Hosted online, it will provide an exciting opportunity to connect to a wider audience of researchers/students from around the world.  To find out more information and to register click here.

FUTURES2020 (European Researchers' Night)

All researchers, research teams and postgraduate research students are invited to share their work with the public at this major event. FUTURES2020, European Researchers’ Night, is hosted by the University of Bristol, together with the University of Bath, Bath Spa University, University of Exeter and University of Plymouth. It takes place on Friday 27 - Sat 28 November 2020.  Researchers from across the universities will deliver activities, demos, discussions, radio workshops, and online experiences. This event is funded by the EU commission and is taking place in partnership with Agile Rabbit. To register your interest, please fill out this short form by 5 September 2020.

Need Help with a CV?
Prof Rob Lee is Bioscience's RS Entrepreneur in Residence and is offering:
- Careers advice and guidance for students and post-doctoral researchers interested in working in industry.
- Mentoring and advising students and academics who are setting up a company or who wish to develop collaborations with industry.
- Helping identify and evaluate the commercial potential of Biosciences research.  
Please email R.Lee@exeter.ac.uk for more information.

Congratulations! Scholarship to the Healthcare Leadership Academy awarded to Dr Jane Masoli

Dr Jane Masoli, NIHR doctoral fellow and specialist registrar in geriatric medicine has been awarded a place amongst the talented cohort of 2020-2021 scholars, funded by Health Education England South West, at The Healthcare Leadership Academy (HLA).  The HLA works with multidisciplinary healthcare professionals and students to develop our healthcare leaders of the future. Universities and healthcare organisations where previous scholars have been based have benefitted immensely from their staff and students becoming scholars. They have developed high profile projects that have had an impact nationally and internationally. We look forward to seeing what this generation of Scholars do with the platform they are given through The HLA and its community.

Disability Network Meeting Dates

For the rest of the year the Disability Network have decided to trial meeting on the same day each month, then switching the day the following term. For Term 1 (from August), the meetings will be every third Monday of the month at 2pm. This means the next meetings for 2020 will be: 21 September, 19 October, 16 November, and 21 December (this date may move to the week before). For accessibility information and the meeting link for the meeting on 21 September, please email disabilitynetwork@exeter.ac.uk. All are welcome to attend, including allies, and it will be an open discussion.

Help Organise the 'University of Exeter' Festival of Compassion

Volunteers are sought (open for everybody – including students) to meet (via Zoom) twice a month to develop and deliver a festival about compassion, mindfulness, and playfulness in June 2021. The festival will include a variety of invited speakers and activities and they are looking for enthusiastic ‘allies’ to create this. If this is a yes for you - please email Maarten Koeners half a page with your information and why you wish to be part of the Festival crew.

Pro-Counselling Service

The health and wellbeing of our colleagues and their families is of paramount importance to the University and we would like to remind you at this unsettling time of the dedicated Pro-Counselling service. This is a self-help tool which can be accessed 24/7 via telephone or via the link above. It has a range of wellbeing resources and guides. Please remember that this is a free service to all members of staff and PGRs, as well as family members living at the address.

The University has created a series of resources with different focus to help give staff advice and tips during this difficult time. These include:

• Keeping Healthy and Productive
• Developing yourself during homeworking

We wish you all well, keep safe and please look out for further updates about specific training and support opportunities that are coming up from the Doctoral College.