Welcome to this fortnight's issue of the Doctoral College Newsletter and our last issue for 2023. We hope you enjoy the festive season and have a great new year.

In the following sections you will find:

• Thesis submissions during the festive closure period
• University Closure Days
• Applications Close 31st December: The Brilliant Club- Teaching Opportunity
• HTA Mandatory and Informed Consent training
• Short survey on Research Communication
• Opportunities
• PGR Study Space
• Training and Development
• 1-2-1 Careers Appointments
• Wellbeing Support and Sessions
• Enquiries

If you have a news story or an opportunity you would like to advertise in the next newsletter (8 January 2024), please email ResearcherDevelopment@exeter.ac.uk by Wednesday 3 January 2024.

Please refer to our style guide before submitting your item.

The University will be closed for the festive break between 23 December 2023 and 1 January 2023 inclusive. If you plan to submit a thesis for examination, or minor or major amendments, and require a submission folder for use in the week before the closure period or during the break, please contact PGR Administration at pgradmin@exeter.ac.uk by Monday 18 December 2023 in order that we have sufficient time to support your request.

The University will be closed from Saturday 23 December to Monday 1 January inclusive due to Christmas break and bank holidays. You can find a list of closure days here.

Please see below for details of when the Streatham PGR Hub, St Luke's Hub and Penryn PGR Support Office will be physically manned in December (they are contactable by email and phone until Friday 22 December):

• The Streatham PGR Hub is open from 10.00am – 3.00pm Monday to Friday up until Friday 15 December, and will re-open on Monday 8 January 2024.
• The St Luke’s Hub is open from 10.00am – 3.00pm Monday to Thursday up until 2pm Thursday 14 December, and will reopen on Monday 8 January 2024.
• The Penryn PGR Support Office is open from 10.00am – 2.00pm Monday to Friday up until Monday 18 December, and will reopen on Tuesday 2 January 2024.

The Brilliant Club is an award-winning university access charity. They recruit and train PhD students and ECRs to support disadvantaged school pupils access the most competitive universities and succeed when they get there.

They provide training in widening participation, research communication, and teaching. Researchers are then paid to deliver academically rigorous programmes in university-style tutorials to small groups of pupils in state schools across the UK.

On The Scholars Programme, tutors are trained to create a course based on their own academic research pitched at pupils in Key Stage 4 or 5. Tutors also have the opportunity to deliver a pre-designed programme to younger pupils aged 8-10.

Placements are paid from £550 per placement, with an additional £121 for designing a Scholars Programme course (plus London weighting). Travel expenses are also paid.

For more information, register to attend an online information event. Apply here. If you have any queries, please get in touch via apply@thebrilliantclub.org.

Deadline: Sunday 31 December 2023

These online sessions for Human Tissue Act (HTA) Mandatory and Informed Consent training are open to ECRs and PGRs. For those who are just starting a research project involved in human tissue you must attend the Mandatory session. If Researchers will be taking consent, you need to attend the Informed Consent training as well.  Equally, anyone who has attended the training over two years ago but is not currently involved in taking samples or consent, is welcome to attend either session as a refresher. Email hta-return@exeter.ac.uk for a Team meeting invitation.

As part of a university-wide project looking at how individuals and teams can be supported to get the most out of social media for research communication, colleagues in Research Services would like anyone interested in or involved with research communications (this includes PGRs) to complete a short survey. By doing so, you will be contributing to recommendations for resources and strategies which can potentially improve and amplify communications about the amazing research taking place across the university. Fill out the survey here.

Applications Open Tuesday 9 January 2024: Scholarships for Canadian Postgraduates studying in the UK

The Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund (CCSF) award competition opens Tuesday 9 January 2024 and closes Friday 10 March 2024 for applications by Canadian students pursuing full-time, multi-year postgraduate programmes in any field of study in the United Kingdom..

Further information may be obtained from the CCSF website. If you have any queries, please contact scholarship@canadianscholarshipfund.co.uk.

Join fellow PGRs in this online space, led by PGRs for PGRs to focus individually on whatever tasks you would like to work on. You can join the PGR Study Space Microsoft Teams Group here, or for further information, please contact Jo Sutherst.

PGR Study Space core facilitated hours are:

• Tuesday 10:00am-12:00pm
• Wednesday 10:00-12:00am; 14:00-16:00pm
• Thursday 14:00-16:00pm

There are unfacilitated sessions outside of these timings.

Here are the remaining courses for 2023 and some of the courses coming up in early 2024- if you are working off-campus, you will need to log into the University VPN to access these links):

• PGR Coffee, Cake and Conversation (Tuesday 12 December, 09.45am-11.15am in Forum Training Room 3, The Forum, Streatham Campus)
• NEW- Success at Interviews (Tuesday 16 January, 13.30-15.00pm via Microsoft Teams)
• NEW- Depositing your work to Open Research Exeter (ORE) (Wednesday 24 January, 10am-10.45am via Microsoft Teams)
• NEW- Publishing in open access (Tuesday 6 February, 13.30pm-14.15pm via Microsoft Teams)
• NEW- An introduction to research ethics review (Wednesday 21 February, 10am-12pm via Microsoft Teams)

Check out our full list of upcoming courses here.

We use PGR iTrent as our booking system for training. Please note that PGR iTrent is separate from staff iTrent; we advise bookmarking this page so that you know you are using the correct links.

You can find presentation slides and recordings of some of our previous courses on ELE. Further resources are also available on researcher-development.co.uk.

You will need to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access iTrent if you are working off campus or not on the University network. You can access information about how to use VPN on the University’s webpages.

Introduction to R 3-Part Workshop (Tuesday 9, 16 and 23 January, 10am-1pm)

The Coding for Reproducible Research are running a 3-part workshop on Introduction to R (Part 1 on 9 January, 10am-1pm; Part 2 on 16 January, 10am-1pm and Part 3 on 23 January, 10am-1pm). All sessions will take place in Old Library Training Room 4, Streatham, with some limited spaces to join virtually. Registration is on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please note that you must be able to attend all three parts. Register here.

Regression with R Workshop (Friday 26 January, 10am-1pm)

The Coding for Reproducible Research are running workshop on Regression with R on Friday 26 January, 10am-1pm. The session will take place in Old Library Training Room 4, Streatham, with some limited spaces to join virtually. Registration is on a first-come-first-serve basis. Register here.

1-2-1 careers appointments with our dedicated PGR careers coach, Kenneth Howgill, are available to book on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Kenneth is a qualified and experienced career coach, lecturer and learning and development professional with over 20 years’ experience within the corporate sector, universities, further and adult education. He has held management roles in the public, corporate and not for profit sectors, leading professional development, coaching programmes, and recruiting graduates. Kenneth is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and holds a business degree, a master's in music and a professional career coaching qualification.

All appointments are 50 minutes long. You can book via MS Bookings; please contact researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk if there are any technical difficulties.

Every Mind Matters
Having good mental health helps us relax more, achieve more and enjoy our lives more. The NHS have expert advice and practical tips to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing. See their website here.

Spectrum.Life
Spectrum.Life provides a confidential telephone, video, and live chat counselling service to help with stress, anxiety, depression, relationship issues, bereavement and more.

Wellbeing Centre
If you would like to speak to Zoe Hughes, PGR Support Advisor for Welfare, Zoe can be contacted at: welfare.pgr@exeter.ac.uk or tel: 01392 726207. Further wellbeing information, tools and support can be found on our wellbeing webpages.

Supporting Your Health & Wellbeing During the Current Events in Israel, Palestine and the Middle East 

We know how distressing the ongoing situation in Israel and Palestine is, and the particular impact this is having on those in our community with family, friends, loved ones and other connections in the region. Our thoughts remain with all who are affected.

Our focus has been on supporting those members of our community who have been most impacted, to ensure we can hear about their experiences and to let them know about the support that is available. 

Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) Spectrum Life has established a dedicated contact number to support those directly or indirectly affected by the situation in Israel and Palestine. They can provide in-the-moment support to any colleagues and PGR students and their dependents over 18 years old. The team of counsellors are available to talk to confidentially 24/7 and can be accessed as often as you wish. You can also call for advice on supporting another team member or colleague. All calls are confidential. You can reach this dedicated line and speak to a counsellor by calling: 0800 6525008.

Free Mindfulness Sessions for Wellbeing

Mindfulness is a powerful practice of training our attention and an evidence-based way to tackle anxiety, stress and low mood. If you’re interested in exploring more, there is a variety of free internal options available for all colleagues.

Sessions from the internal Mood Disorders Centre mindfulness team include: an eight-week MBCT-L course (2hrs weekly), an eight-week ‘deeper mindfulness’ course for those who’ve completed the MBCT-L course and bespoke ‘healthy mind’ sessions for whole teams, which can be delivered in-person or online.

You may also be interested in trying mindful meditation in 30 min online sessions each Thursday lunchtime. This is a secular practice run by the Chaplaincy.

Information about these sessions, how to sign up and their benefits can be found on our mindfulness webpage.

Details on how you can contact the PGR support team, either via email, telephone or face to face via our hubs (located on all campuses) is available on our contact us webpage.

Remember you can come along and meet the team or to ask any enquiries you might have at either of our helpdesk hubs below at any of our campuses:

The Streatham PGR Hub is open from 10.00am – 3.00pm Monday to Friday up until Friday 15 December, and will re-open on Monday 8 January 2024. The Streatham Hub is situated in the Old Library Ground Floor next to the Quiet Study Space and Bill Douglas Centre.

The St Luke’s PGR Hub is open from 10.00am – 3.00pm Monday to Thursday until 2pm on Thursday 14 December, and will reopen on Monday 8 January 2024. Students wishing to access the hub should go to the Info at St Luke’s desk and request PGR support, the PGR team will then be called to see you.

The Penryn PGR Support Office is open from 10.00am – 2.00pm Monday to Friday up until Monday 18 December, and will reopen on Tuesday 2 January 2024 and is based in the Postgraduate Suite in Daphne Du Maurier building 3 (next to the SU and opposite the Stannary).

For enquiries surrounding training and development, please contact the team on ResearcherDevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.

To view previous versions of the newsletter, see here.