Welcome to this fortnight's issue of the Doctoral College Newsletter. In the following sections you will find:

• PGR Induction Portal - find PGR resources and support here!
• Hello from your Students' Guild
• New Podcast from Researcher Development and Research Culture Team: Exeter Postgraduate Researcher Podcast
• PGR Study Space - Shut Up and Write!
• A student-led, communication forum for older mature students
• Join our Responsible Metrics Champions Group
• Training and Development
• 1-2-1 Careers Appointments
• Opportunities
• Reminders
• Wellbeing (including sessions)
• Enquiries

If you have a news story or an opportunity you would like to advertise, please email ResearcherDevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.

Please refer to our style guide before submitting your item.

The Doctoral College Online Induction Portal is an online portal which allows you to learn about the University, the Doctoral College and its teams, along with all the student support services and how to get started with your degree. In order to access the portal you will have needed to have registered as a student first.

We recommend that all new PGR students should work through the induction portal before attending the face to face or online induction.

However, you don't need to be new to us to use the portal. This site is for all PGRs. We hold lots of references to contacts, sources of supports, reminders of information touched on at your welcome induction that you may have forgotten about, videos by our PGR Support team and how you can get involved as a PGR to really enhance your PGR experience (and more!)! We recommend you give this webpage a bookmark in your web browser and get in touch with us at Doctoral.College@exeter.ac.uk if you have any questions.

I’m Rhys, the Societies and Employability Officer at the Guild, and as a part of our community focus, I want to be one of the first to welcome you all to Exeter. We can’t wait to see you at Welcome 2023! By “you”, we mean all of you. This used to be called Freshers’ Week, but Welcome 2023 is reworked, reworded, and relaunched so that everyone – whatever stage in the academic journey you are on – can feel involved and welcomed. The name may have changed, but the fresh and fun vibes are here to stay, but this time, across six weeks of activities and events! It’s all designed to make sure that all of you, our members can get involved with wherever you want to be and are able to make the most of your time in Exeter. Welcome kicks off on 18 September!

Our student-led societies are here to bring together students with similar interests as well as provide opportunities to try something new and different! This is just one of the ways you can get involved.

Part of our mission is to be community-focussed, and that means we want to be led by you, with you, and for you, so if there is anything that you can think up that would help you Love Exeter and squeeze every drop out of your student experience: we’ll help you find it at your Students’ Guild. If you want to get in touch about Societies, then you can email activities@exeterguild.com or contact me directly at rhys.wallis@exeterguild.com.

The Researcher Development and Research Culture Team have launched a new podcast for PGRs: Exeter Postgraduate Researcher Podcast. This podcast covers the skills and knowledge needed for postgraduate researchers' professional development. It can be listened to online via Podbean, via Spotify, Amazon Music, or on our webpage.

R, D and The In-Betweens will still be accessible but Exeter Postgraduate Researcher Podcast will be the home for any new content. If you have ideas for future topics you would like us to cover, please get in touch via researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.

PGR Study Space (formerly known as Shut Up and Write) is an online workspace run by PGRs for PGRs. You can use these sessions for writing, reading, planning, corrections...anything you want to focus on!

PGR Study Space's usual core facilitated sessions are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10am-12pm and 2-4pm. There are unfacilitated sessions outside of these hours.

Always keen to have new people join us – everyone is welcome!  

If you would like to join PGR Study Space, join the Teams group or email Jo Sutherst.

We are also looking for additional facilitators; if you are interested, please email Jo Sutherst.

ARE YOU AGED 30+?

This year, there will be a new pilot scheme, aiming to help older students feel more engaged and involved, and improve their experience of university life.  This is a student-led initiative, trialling a communication platform, to allow target students across the university to better find each other, for mutual support.

If you will be turning 30 or over this coming academic year, then you are invited to join this pilot scheme.  Look out for the registration link, which will be available in the next edition of this newsletter, in a fortnight’s time.

Help us make research assessment fairer for all.

The responsible use of metrics in academic assessment forms part of our work to ensure a fair and positive research culture. Responsible metrics celebrates all research and research outputs and looks beyond blunt quantitative measures to assess quality.

As a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, we are looking for researchers to join our Responsible Metrics Champions Group, especially in departments not currently represented, to help ensure that this important agenda translates into our own university policy and practice.

Those in the earlier stages of their research career have the most to gain from responsible metrics, so we’re keen to ensure that we have PGRs and ECRs in the group. If you’d like to find out more, or think you may be interested in joining the group, please contact Becky Euesden.

Body Doubling is the process of working alongside others online or in person, in a supportive environment, for accountability and to help with concentration. The Neurodiversity Café is planning to start running Body Doubling Sessions, which aim to help colleagues and PGRs feel focused and happy at work, especially when working from home. We will be running a pilot session in August/September. If you'd like to be involved, please get in touch via this participation and feedback form. We welcome feedback on how it should run. To sign up for the Neurodiversity Café please fill in this Microsoft Form. Contact edi@exeter.ac.uk if you have questions about this initiative.

Check out our upcoming courses here.

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.

1-2-1 careers appointments with our dedicated PGR careers coach, Kenneth Howgill, are available to book on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. 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.

Summit on Tuesday 12 September 2023- Register now to attend the British Academy Early Career Researcher South West Hub Summit in Bath.

Come meet your peers, form a new research collaborations and learn about funding streams to get your ideas off the ground! The British Academy Early Career Researcher South West Hub will be holding their second Summit on the 12 September 2023 at the Hilton Hotel in Bath - register now.

This is an opportunity for old and new BA ECRN members to connect with peers, celebrate the recipients of the first round of seed funding and event funding, and have your say in shaping the forward direction of the Network and South West Hub. A majority of the day will be dedicated to supporting you to form new research collaborations, networks and projects via a series of facilitated networking exercises with your peers and senior academics. You will also hear from the British Academy and South West Hub teams on funding streams that will support the delivery of any ideas emerging from the event. You can find the full programme and register to attend via the Ticket Tailor event registration page.

The event is free to attend. Travel and accommodation is available via the British Academy.

Seminar on Tuesday 12 September: CYP Wellbeing @Exeter Research Network Seminar Series

The inaugural event of the CYP Wellbeing @Exeter Research Network new Seminar Series is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 12 September from 12.00-1.00pm. The seminar will be hosted in person at St Luke's Campus, with live streams to both Streatham and Penryn Campuses.

The topic is 'Just-In Time Adaptive interventions and the challenges and opportunities of new digital interventions'.

This event is led by Dr Amberly Brigden, a lecturer in Digital Health at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of complex digital health interventions to support children with chronic health conditions and this presentation will give an overview of Just-In Time Adaptive interventions and the challenges and opportunities of new digital interventions.

Please book your free ticket via EventBrite here.

Deadline Thursday 13 September 2023- Expression of interest for participation in the certified intellectual property (IP) course offered by the European Patent Office (EPO)

“Create – Protect – Innovate: Bringing ideas to market (Part I - entry level)”

Are you an aspiring creator, innovator, manager, or entrepreneur, dealing with any intellectual creations of your own or others in your current work or likely to do so in your future endeavour? Or simply interested in learning about intellectual property (IP) protection to expand your skill set? Here is a fantastic opportunity to learn about the basics of protecting innovations including what is IP, how patent works, and developing an IP strategy directly from the IP course offered by the European Patent Office (EPA) through their flagship programme, Modular IP Education Framework (MIPEF).

The course is open to PhDs and Masters students across disciplines. Participation is extracurricular. This is a self-paced course that allows you to complete the online sessions at any time of your convenience within the scheduled time window. You are expected to attend three live sessions and do light-weight assignments.

We are collecting expression of interest for the October 2023 cohort. Participation is fully free of cost, and you will receive a certificate from the EPO upon successful completion. There are no prerequisites for participation. Seats are limited to 50, so act quickly!

To express your interest to participate, please fill this short form, on or before 13th September 2023.

Workshop on Thursday 14 September: EnigmaAI: Unveiling the Intelligence behind Optimization & Machine Learning

In partnership with Global Systems Institute (GSI), EnigmaAI is a captivating workshop delving into the cutting-edge applications of AI in the realm of science. It takes place on Thursday 14th September, 10.30-1.30pm in Constantine Leventis Teaching Room, Building:One, Streatham Campus.

Discover the enigmatic world of AI optimisation, where algorithms unravel complex challenges and unlock unprecedented efficiency. Unleash the power of machine learning, witnessing how AI can decipher patterns, predict outcomes, and revolutionise scientific research. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or a curious enthusiast, EnigmaAI promises to inspire and enlighten, showcasing the boundless potential of artificial intelligence in shaping the future of science.  To find out more and to register, click here. If you have any queries, please contact Milad Latifi and Babak Zolghadr-asli.

Conference on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 September: Registration Open for Free Lumivero Virtual Conference for Qualitative Research Better Together for Better Insights, Research, and Outcomes

Join Global Leaders for Better Together for Better Insights, Research, and Outcomes Dive into the world of data in our free virtual conference! Bringing researchers and Lumivero software users together to learn and connect for better insights when analyzing statistical and qualitative research to create outcomes that drive impactful decisions with Lumivero software: NVivo, Citavi, @RISK, DecisionTools Suite, Sonia, Tevera, and XLSTAT.
 

Why Attend?
.       150+ Presentations
.       20+ Product Workshops
.       8 Keynote Industry Leader Speakers
.       2 Days of Insights
.       1 Experience for Better Insights, Research, and Outcomes

To find out more and register for free, check out their website.

Justice and Violence Studies @ Exeter

Using their expertise in qualitative, quantitative and evaluative methods, and the experience (including lived experience) of others as appropriate, members of the network assess and evaluate policies and practices to better understand how and why people are subject to violence and injustice and the most effective methods for combatting these. We welcome members across all career stages. Areas of expertise include, but are not limited to:

• Discretion
• Transitional justice.
• Violence (criminal or otherwise).
• Access to justice and the legal system.
• Terrorism, dis/mis information, mass violence and killings.
• Technologies, their implications and consequences;
• Imprisonment and detention.
• Critical Military Studies.
• Vulnerabilities of various kinds and their intersectionality, treatment and production (including mental health issues, self harm, membership of minoritized ethnic groups, immigration status, children and adverse childhood experiences, addictions, disability and activities of (b)ordering by police and other State agents).
• Accountability.
• Methodological and ethical issues.

If you would like to join the network, please see the link for more details or email Will King at wsk204@exeter.ac.uk.

Training on Wednesday 11 October: Human Tissue Act Training

This training is mandatory for anyone wishing to store ANY human samples at the University of Exeter. The next session is on Wednesday 11 October 2023, 13:00-14:00 on MS Teams.

If you plan to collect informed consent as part of your research, there is also the Informed Consent training held on Wednesday 11 October 2023, 14:15-15:15 on MS Teams.

Please contact HTA-return@exeter.ac.uk for further enquiries or to book your place.

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.

Free Mindfulness Sessions

Mindfulness is an evidence-based way to help with anxiety, stress and low mood.

Free mindfulness sessions are provided by an experienced clinical team at our own Mood Disorders Centre. To find out more, please visit our mindfulness webpage.

Our Buddhist Chaplain also offers free weekly, lunchtime mindful meditation sessions. Please see the group page for details and email StaffLife@exeter.ac.uk to join the mailing list.

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. 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. 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 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 doctoral.college@exeter.ac.uk.

To view previous versions of the newsletter, you can do so here.