25 September 2024

CaRST eNewsletter

Pitching Bootcamp - Apply Now!

As a researcher, being able to confidently pitch your research may open new opportunities for research funding, or increase the impact of your research through increased engagement. We’re excited to launch a new program for 2024 – Pitching Bootcamp!

Unlock your potential and master the art of persuasion with our new Pitching Bootcamp developed in collaboration with Talent Academy! This dynamic program will transform your pitching skills from ordinary to extraordinary.

In just five interactive 2-hour sessions, you'll learn to:

• Craft compelling research pitches that captivate and convert
• Deliver your pitch with confidence and clarity
• Tailor your message for public bodies and policymakers
• Engage private industry and investors with strategic finesse
• Showcase your refined skills in a final pitch session before a panel of industry partners and business development experts

Workshops will meet in-person on Mondays from 28 October to 25 November.

Join us to refine your approach, polish your presentation, and seize opportunities. Elevate your pitch and stand out in the competitive landscape—enroll today and take the first step towards pitching success!

Eligible for 10 CaRST credits in Domain D

To register your interest in the course, please complete and submit the online Expression of Interest form by Monday 7 October. You will be advised by 14 October if you are successful in gaining a place in the program.

Science Communication Courses for Researchers

Do you need some help designing your scientific poster? Would you like to learn to draw scientific graphics and figures in Adobe Illustrator? Are you interested in creating your own captivating scientific video?

CaRST has partnered with science communication agency Animate your Science to bring you 3 incredible courses around these three themes! Each course is approved for 3+ CaRST credits in Domain D.

• How to Design an Award-Winning Scientific Poster
• Learn to draw in Illustrator: by scientists for scientists
• Lights, Camera, Impact: How to Produce Captivating Science Videos

How to participate

CaRST is sponsoring licences for a limited number of researchers to enrol in these courses. To register your interest, please complete and submit the online expression of interest form.

Please note students will only be selected for a single course during each round, and due to limited capacity students in their second and third year of HDR will be prioritised during the selection process.

When: Expressions of interest close COB 14 October 2024

Course delivery dates: These are online, self-paced courses. Selected students will be enrolled into the courses from mid-November and have 12 months access.

Delivery mode: Self-paced online via video lessons.

For enquiries, please contact carst@adelaide.edu.au or for more information on these courses see our detailed descriptions on the CaRST webpage.

Training & Development Events

Before registering for CaRST events, please review our no-show policy.

Stylish Academic Writing for Postgrads

When: 26 September 2024, 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Credits: 2 credits, Domain D
Delivery mode: Zoom Webinar

This workshop will cover some of the basics of Stylish Academic Writing and introduce to participants several ways that their writing can be more cohesive and creative. The participants will be invited to examine examples of academic writing that is punchy, witty, and insightful. Academic writing does not need to be boring or bland but can still contain creative elements that entice the reader. This workshop is designed for all disciplines and will showcase a variety of academic articles, books, and strategies to assist with thesis and publication writing.  Register here.

Conducting Research Interviews

When: 3 October 2024, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Credits: 1.5 credits, Domain A
Delivery mode: In-person

Research interviews are a fantastic way to build a rich, nuanced data set that may not be available through other research methods. In this workshop you’ll be given tips and techniques to structure your interview, engage respectfully with your interviewees to get the best outcomes, and manage and analyse your data. You’ll also have a chance to practice your interview skills with your fellow students. This multidisciplinary workshop is suitable for all HDR students who are planning to use interviews as a research methodology. Students should come prepared with a topic (preferably non-academic) to be interviewed about – maybe your favourite movie, sporting team, or holiday. Register here.

Responding to Selection Criteria

When: 10 October 2024, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Credits: 1 credit, Domain B
Delivery mode: Zoom Webinar

Does the idea of responding to selection criteria daunt you? Are you aware of what to look for in selection criteria so that you can highlight your skills and abilities? This webinar provides an overview of how to develop effective responses to selection criteria. Content includes understanding selection criteria and different response methods, recognising key requirements, and writing a focused response. Register here.

Question Time: Handling questions at a conference presentation

When: 15 October 2024, 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Credits: 1.5 credits, Domain D
Delivery mode: Zoom Webinar

No matter how well you prepare for your presentation, the part that freaks out most researchers is question time. What if they ask really tricky questions that I can’t answer? What do I do if I don’t know the answer? Fortunately, you can prepare for question time. You can predict and get ready for most of the obvious questions. And you can learn strategies to deal with the others. Topics will include preparing for questions, inviting questions, dealing with tricky questions, what to do if you don’t know, coping with the anxiety, lists of typical questions, and asking questions. Register here.

Pitch Perfection

When: 22 October 2024, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Credits: 1 credit, Domain D
Delivery mode: Zoom Webinar

A pitch is about engaging, enticing and moving people to action. Learn the 3 important elements you must communicate in every pitch and how to think on your feet. Presented by Sharon Ferrier of Persuasive Presentations. Sharon has a knack for making the complex simple. She believes that passionate people persuade’ and that to make your message stick, you need to balance information with delivery style. Register here.

Congratulations on your grant… now what?

When: 23 October 2024, 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Credits: 1.5 credits, Domain C
Delivery mode: Zoom Webinar

This webinar focuses on the post-award grant management process and will help researchers to understand their responsibilities and the timelines involved after successfully being awarded a grant. Register here.

Understanding Skills

When: 24 October 2024, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Credits: 1 credit, Domain B
Delivery mode: Zoom Webinar

Are you aware of the skills you are developing throughout your research degree and how they relate to employability in both academic and non-academic environments? Do you know how to articulate your skills and how they will be a benefit to employers? This webinar focusses on building skills awareness and how to let employers know about your skill set. Content includes identifying and recording skills, recognising HDR skills valued by employers, and articulating skills effectively. Register here.

Other Training & Events

Introduction to systematic searching for non-health subjects

Systematic reviews have their origins in the discipline of Health and Medical Sciences, but are increasingly being carried out in other areas. There are also other types of systematic literature reviews which make use of systematic search techniques. Join the Liaison Librarians to learn more about developing an appropriate search strategy for this kind of review. You can record this session for 1 credit in Domain A for CaRST. 26 September 2024 11.00am-12.00pm. Register here.

R101: Learn to Program: R

R is quickly gaining popularity as a programming language of choice for statisticians, data scientists and researchers. It has an excellent ecosystem including the powerful RStudio development environment and the Shiny web application framework. But getting started with R can be challenging, particularly if you’ve never programmed before. That’s where this introductory course comes in. We teach using RStudio, which allows program code, results, visualisations and documentation to be blended seamlessly. Join us for a live coding workshop where we write programs that produce results, using the researcher-focused training modules from the highly regarded Software Carpentry Foundation. You can record this session for 6 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 3-4 October 2024 9.30am-12.30pm. Register here.

EXCEL101: Excel For Researchers

Data rarely comes in the form you require. Often it is messy. Sometimes it is incomplete. And sometimes there’s too much of it. Frequently, it has errors. We’ll use one of the most widespread data wrangling tools, Microsoft Excel, to import, sort, filter, copy, protect, transform, summarise, merge, and visualise research data. While aimed at novice Excel users, most attendees will walk away with new tricks to work more efficiently with their research data. You can record this session for 6 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 8-9 October 2024 1:30pm-4:30pm. Register here.

Open Access Publishing

This webinar will cover the updated University Open Access Policy, the different types of Open Access (OA) publishing currently available and what options are available for publishing your own work Open Access, OA licensing and copyright, and things to look out for in Open Access publishing agreements. You can record this session for 1 credit in Domain D for CaRST. 14 October 2024 10.00am-11.00am. Register here.

Data Management Planning Essentials

What makes a good data management plan and why is it important? Join us for this session where we’ll look at the benefits of data management planning, your data management planning obligations at the University of Adelaide, and how a well thought out data management plan can help to make your life as a researcher easier. You can record this session for 1 credit in Domain C for CaRST. 15 October 2024 11.00am-12.00pm. Register here.

PYTHON101: Learn to Program: Python

Python has deservedly become a popular language for scientific computing. It has all the friendly features and conveniences you’d expect of a modern programming language, and also a rich set of libraries for working with data. We teach using Jupyter notebooks, which allow program code, results, visualisations and documentation to be blended seamlessly. Perfect for sharing insights with others while producing reproducible research. Join us for this live coding workshop where we write programs that produce results, using the researcher-focused training modules from the highly regarded Software Carpentry Foundation. You can record this session for 6 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 17-18 October 2024 9:30am-12:30pm. Register here.

EXCEL201: Beyond Basics: Conditionals and Visualisation in Excel

After cleaning your database, you may need to apply some conditional analysis to glean greater insights from your data. You may also want to enhance your charts for inclusion into a manuscript, thesis or report by adding some statistical elements. This course will cover conditional syntax, nested functions, statistical charting and outlier identification. Armed with the tips and tricks from our introductory Excel for Researchers course, you will be able to tap into even more of Excel’s diverse functionality and apply it to your research project. You can record this session for 3 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 23 October 2024 9:30am-12:30pm. Register here.

Introducing the DATA Scheme: pathways for finding and requesting access to Australian Government data

Learn more about the DATA Scheme and initiatives from the Office for the National Data Commissioner (ONDC) to make Australian Government data more discoverable and accessible for researchers. In this webinar ONDC will provide an overview of the DATA Scheme , including how the Scheme operates, how to find data on the Australian Government Data Catalogue, and how you can make requests for data using the Dataplace platform. ONDC will provide a walk-through of the process of requesting data, and discuss key things users will need to keep in mind when creating a data sharing agreement. There will be time for questions, and staff from the University Library will be participate to answer questions about the University’s accreditation as a DATA Scheme user. You can record this session for 1 credit in Domain A for CaRST. 23 October 2024 11:30am-12:30pm. Register here.

R210: Exploring Chi-Square and correlation in R

This hands-on training is designed to familiarise you with the data analysis environment of the R programming. In this session, we will traverse into the realm of inferential statistics, beginning with correlation and reliability. We will present a brief conceptual overview and the R procedures for computing reliability and correlation (Pearson’s r, Spearman’s Rho and Kendall’s tau) in real world datasets. You can record this session for 3 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 25 October 2024 9:30am-12:30pm. Register here.

R211: Traversing t tests in R

R has become a popular programming language for statisticians, data scientists and researchers. It has an excellent ecosystem including the powerful RStudio and the Shiny web application framework. The primary goal of this workshop is to familiarise you with basic statistical concepts in R from reading in and manipulating data, checking assumptions, statistical tests and visualisations. This is not an advanced statistics course, but is instead designed to gently introduce you to statistical comparisons and hypothesis testing in R. You can record this session for 3 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 29 October 2024 1:30pm-4:30pm. Register here.

R212: Exploring ANOVAs in R

R is quickly gaining popularity as a programming language for statisticians, data scientists and researchers. It has an excellent ecosystem including the powerful RStudio and the Shiny web application framework. This half-day course covers one and two-way Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) and their non-parametric counterparts in R. To better understand the tests, assumptions and associated concepts, we will be using a dataset containing the mathematics scores of secondary students. This dataset also includes information regarding their mother’s and father’s jobs and education levels, the number of hours dedicated to study, and time spent commuting to and from school. Lifestyle information about alcohol consumption habits, whether the students have quality relationships with their families and whether they have free time after school is included in this dataset. You can record this session for 3 credits in Domain A for CaRST. 31 October 2024 1:30pm-4:30pm. Register here.

Neurodiversity Mentoring 2025

The Disability Support Unit will be launching a Neurodiversity Mentoring Program in 2025 to support neurodivergent students. Mentors will assist their neurodiverse mentees and provide advice around study habits, executive functioning, academic skills, and managing studying whilst neurodivergent. Please visit the Neurodiversity Project webpage to learn more about this pilot program and how to become a mentor. We are also asking students to kindly fill out this survey on future neurodiversity support. You can claim up to 7 credits in CaRST for completion of the program and training

About CaRST

Located within the Adelaide Graduate Research School, CaRST is a specialised training and development program for HDR students at the University of Adelaide. For further information on CaRST visit the CaRST website.