This year’s programme of personal and professional development opportunities for Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) is now available.
The core programme, which can be accessed here, includes workshops, masterclasses, boot camps, webinars, practice-based sessions, faculty forums, online modules, and self-paced resources on topics such as viva preparation to academic writing, presenting at conferences and public engagement. All are completely free to access, with resources tailored for every stage of your research journey.
New sessions for 2026
New PGR Development sessions now added to our semester two programme include:
- How to do collaborative research
- The essentials of Science Policy for PGRs
- How to publish your PhD as a book
You can also take advantage of our new shorter online webinars (45-60 mins) including:
- Publishing in high impact journals for PGRs
- Writing journal articles
- Maximising success at academic conferences
More information on this year’s complete offer, resources, and recordings of previous sessions can be found on the PGR Development Hub, with a downloadable monthly calendar with all our sessions available here.
Support for part-time researchers
Are you a part time PGR struggling to balance you research with other responsibilities? Come along to our new bespoke session Research resilience: thriving as part-time PGR to learn crucial strategies to help balance multiple workloads and responsibilities and maintain high-quality outputs. Book your place here.
All opportunities for 2026
- The Central PGR Programme: Over 100 sessions delivered via online modules and resources, workshops, masterclasses, boot camps, webinars, Faculty Forums, practical applications, and many more.
- Three Minute Thesis: The Three Minute thesis (3MT®) is a prestigious competition which challenges doctoral candidates to give a compelling spoken presentation of their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes, using just one slide. The overall winner will represent the University of Liverpool at the National Vitae 3MT competition
- PGR Development Canvas: Access a wealth of online development resources, including self-paced modules tailored to every stage of the PGR process. All PGRs are automatically enrolled on registration, or PGRs can self-enrol using this link. PGRs can access the current version of the Development Needs Analysis (DNA) on this page.
- The PGR Development Group (PDG) is run by PGRs for PGRs. It publishes regular e-bulletins, runs events and activities, and provides a voice for PGRs within the research community.
- FAQs for PGRs with any questions
- A handy tick box guide to help both Supervisors and PGRs to begin thinking about development.
For more information about PGR development via the Academy, visit PGR Development Hub, or email us at Researcher@liverpool.ac.uk with the email title ‘PGR Development’.