The University’s researcher development event series Making an Impact 2020 is almost here. This exciting series of development opportunities, focused on research impact, will take place over a period of three weeks between 1 – 19 June 2020. The programme is structured in way that provides high-quality sessions for academic, research and research-related professional staff at all stages of their career.
A printable calendar version of all the events is available here and a searchable version of the programme is also available here, links to registration is available from both.
Notable upcoming sessions by outcome include:
For those looking to boost their academic research impact and knowledge exchange potential
Wednesday, 3 June 11.30am – 12.30pm Making civic engagement even more important in a post Covid world: How can we do that?
The University has always contributed to the political, social and economic life of Liverpool. We have expanded and promoted that role in recent years. It has been made more important by the current global pandemic. This session will ask what we have been doing in the recent past and what more we might do in future in partnership with other anchor institutions to help the people and places of our city region emerge in a more resilient and more equitable way.
Capture and share information and evidence relating to research impact
Wednesday, 3 June 1pm – 2pm Knowledge Transfer Partnerships: partnerships that create real impact
Knowledge transfer is key to unlocking innovation and a KTP opens the door to strategic change, new opportunities for parties involved and capabilities for a business. During this session: You will meet the KTP Manager at the UoL who have a successful tracked record in securing KTP funding,- Understand companies and Associates’ experiences in carrying out a KTP with the University, Meet experienced academics supervisors on a good number of KTP projects and Meet one of our Knowledge Transfer Advisor from the KTN, one of the partners that facilitates the delivery of KTP
Research culture
Friday, 5 June 1pm -1.30pm and 1.30pm -2pm Café Culture.
An opportunity to talk about the challenges you face in research culture, what a better culture would look like, and propose solutions. These two sessions will be run by the University’s Research staff Association
Achieving a successful research culture needs collective responsibility and change at all levels. Your conversations and ideas will help craft a set of ambitious goals for creating a better culture.
Develop the reach of your research activity, interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration
Friday, 5 June 10am-11am Exploring and sharing research through poetry
Use poetry to get to grips with your own research area and to share your findings with the world. This session is open to those with an interest in any disciple and will cover topics including: Poetry as a method of research communication, The history of research and poetry, Overcoming poetry’s intimidation factor, how to get started and where to share poems.
For those looking to use their research experience outside academia
Monday, 8 June, 9.30am-10.30am Making an Impact Beyond Academia in the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Advice for researchers at Liverpool who wish to go on to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical industry by Dr Eliot Forster following his PhD at Liverpool, Eliot pursued a career that has encompassed positions with Pfizer, roles advising the public sector, through to his current role as CEO of F-Star Therapeutics;. He will talk about the impact his work has had on society, public policy, quality of life and the economy.
Other Sessions to look out for include:
Tuesday, 2 June 9.30am -10:3am. A talk from our Vice Chancellor Prof Dame Janet Beer on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the commitment the University has made and their importance for our research and wider impact. This will be followed (2nd June 11am -12.30pm) by an interactive workshop that will provide you with a bespoke University SDG mapping toolkit and give you the opportunity to influence what a fully SDG engaged University of Liverpool would look like and the steps we need to take to get there. Register here.
Wednesday, 3 June 2.30pm -3.30pm. A keynote on Research Culture led by Dr Beth Thompson. As lead of Wellcome’s research culture programme Beth will talk about what research culture means to her, what Wellcome is doing to make it better and what else needs to change to make the UK one of the best places in the world to be a researcher.
Prosper launch
This year’s Making an Impact programme also sees the launch of Prosper, the University of Liverpool’s new career development model aimed at preparing postdocs for multiple career paths. The Prosper team will be running two sessions – More than a job – Former postdocs share their experience beyond academia, (Friday, 12 June 9.30am -10.30am) showcasing the diverse career pathways open to postdocs, as well as an interactive webinar previewing the new prototype Prosper portal (Friday, 19 June 2pm-3pm). Join the team to get a first look at the portal and its resources including a suite of reflective tools, case-studies, advice on CV writing, interview technique and more, enabling you to explore new careers with confidence. Your feedback during the session will shape how this resource develops over the coming months.
Further information
Please visit the Making an Impact webpages where you will find more details on the sessions as well as online recourses (including the podcasts), links to our the Making an Impact Microsoft Team social space, twitter competition and much much more.
Also follow @LivResearcher and the hashtag #unilivimpact20 on Twitter for daily updates on Making an Impact sessions as well as @LivUniAcademy for updates and further information about researcher development opportunities.