Research staff development – Upcoming online activities

This is the first in a series of news stories looking at how the Academy has transformed its offer to meet colleagues’ current development needs.

The Academy has redesigned its researcher development activities, including those offered in collaboration with the Research Staff Association (UoL RSA). The Academy continues to plan new activities and will be offering Making an Impact 2020 as a virtual event.

Some of our upcoming research staff development opportunities include:

Research Staff Wellbeing and Online Networking

The #ResDevInYourPJs campaign consists of alternating weekly bite-sized videos to foster your personal and professional career development, and Twitter check-in chats with researchers across the University. The next #ResDevInYourPJs video will be launched by @LivResearcher on Monday 6th April, and includes a discussion with the UoL RSA co-chairs about the activities they have lined up.  The next Twitter check-in will take place on of Tuesday 14th April 1pm – 2pm and colleagues from the Academy’s researcher development team, the UoL RSA and the Prosper Team will be there for researchers to chat with and answer questions.

The UoL RSA is also offering Virtual Coffee Breaks with members of the UoL RSA and colleagues from across the University for an informal chat every alternate Wednesday. The breaks include a Fabulous Mug Contest in which the winner each session receives virtual elbow bumps! The next one will be on Wednesday 15th April 2.30pm – 3pm.

Information about the virtual coffee breaks and dedicated research staff wellbeing resources during COVID-19 are available via the Researcher Hub.

Lunch and Learn Sessions

On 27th April, 13:00 – 14:00, a Lunch and Learn Seminar about how to use Microsoft Teams for research collaboration and communication. You will see a demonstration of Teams’ functions plus time for questions. Please register here.

On 11th May, 13:00 – 14:00, a Lunch and Learn Seminar: ‘What the F.E.C?’ delivered by John Ellis from the Research Support Office. John will cover what FEC is, how the University recovers costs from grants and advice on grant costing/budgeting and will be on hand for Q&A. Please register here.

Making an Impact 2020

Making an Impact, our flagship researcher development activity will take place as originally scheduled from 1st-19th June 2020 as an online event. Sessions are being designed to be as flexible as possible for colleagues to engage with under current conditions, and will include interactive webinars, podcasts, pre-recorded seminars, live keynotes and links to numerous online resources and. Programme details will be released next month and sessions include how to make an impact remotely, researcher wellbeing and leadership during times of crisis, entrepreneurial thinking for researchers and Café Cultures.

Ongoing Academy Development Activities

A purposefully-curated catalogue of online researcher skills development resources for researchers is now freely and flexibly available. All courses and videos have been mapped to the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) so that you can identify which skills each resource is related to.

The Academy have a comprehensive overview of our current online provision, including links to where research staff can enrol, download resources, find more information or access externally hosted, free materials to support professional learning.

Frequently Asked Questions for Research Staff

For any questions about your development activities, please check The Academy Researcher Development FAQs here

Upcoming events and all research staff development activities will continue to be updated on the Researcher Hub.

Follow @LivResearcher, @UoL_RSA and @LivUniAcademy for updates and information about further staff development opportunities.