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Networking and Profile Building

Please complete the Expression of Interest form

to book a place on any run in this academic year

Expression of Interest form

We will be running this three times in 2024/25

  • October 14, 21, 28 - Monday mornings (10am-1pm)
  • March 18, 25, April 1 - Tuesday mornings (10am-1pm)
  • June 9, 16, 23 - Monday mornings (10am-1pm)

A practical Networking and Research Profile Building course for Postdocs and Fellows

This course is composed of three half-days and will cover a range of skills that will help you raise your profile, and build the networks that can help you succeed, whether your career aims are in academia or beyond it. This course is collaboratively delivered across the over 15 UK Higher Education Institutions and during this workshop you will get the opportunity to network, online, with researchers based at these institutions.

Places on this course are prioritised for postdoctoral and early-career researchers.
To attend this course, you must agree to attend all sessions.

Registration for each run closes 11 working days prior to the first session.

Format

The course will run over three separate half-days, each one-week apart. Topics are run in pairs as a 3-hour morning or afternoon (90min + 90 min). The course runs online, hosted on Zoom.

Some sessions will have resources to review or brief exercise to complete before the session starts.

In this session we will introduce you to some theoretical frameworks that help you understand your networks and plan areas where you might consider developing them. You will also get a chance to meet some of your peers from other institutions.

This session will be co-delivered by:  Natasha Rhys (King's), Francina Clayton (York)

This session will enable you to:

  • Define networking - what it is and isn’t and why it’s important for a range of contexts
  • Map your existing network and reflect on how it is functioning
  • Identify gaps in your network and plan how to fill them
  • Connect with other participants during and between sessions

Running time: 90 minutes

This session connects to session 1 and will help you delve a little further into developing methods of networking which are comfortable for you. During the session you will meet a range of experienced “networking regulars” drawn from the partner Universities and their networks.

Led by: Victoria Sedman (Nottingham) and Marina Bush (Cambridge)

This session will enable you to:

  • Self assess and build increased confidence in developing and using networking for career development .
  • Identify barriers to networking and employ strategies to overcome these
  • Evaluate the range of networking options/ practices which suit extraverts and those which suit introverts
  • Reflect how this safe space was used at the event to develop or boost your network

Running time: 90 minutes (or run with Session 1 as a half-day)

In this session we will help you assess the value of collaboration and partnering for your career and help you evaluate your collaboration/partnering potential, learning practical ways to help you arrive at concrete next steps to forming these connections. This session will involve a panel discussion, featuring staff from Queen’s University Belfast and University of Portsmouth staff to discuss their experience of research collaborations.

Led by: Paul Monahan (Queens Belfast) and Lisa Rhodes (Portsmouth)

This session will enable you to:

  • Better understand what makes a successful research collaboration
  • Begin a research collaboration and manage the collaboration
  • Plan your next steps in developing your networks and potential collaborations

Running time: 90 minutes (this topic will usually run with Session 4)

This structured networking session will give participants the opportunity to put into practice some of what has been covered in the course so far. Participants will get an opportunity to network with their peers from other institutions.

Led by: Nicole Horst (Cambridge) and Andrew Holmes (Liverpool)

Running time: 90 minutes (or run as a half-day with Session 3)

This session will explore how online networking can support your networking goals. We will help you review and improve your online profile, going in depth on making best use of LinkedIn and other platforms. We’ll discuss strategies to make the most of your time and resources and this session will give you a handy peer group to get you off to a flying start!

Led by: Ruth Winden (Leeds) and Inês Perpetuo (Imperial)

Running time: 90 minutes (or run as a half-day with Session 6)

In this session we recap everything we've covered in all sessions together about networking, collaborating and partnering, and social media, and talk about how working on all of these factors can help you to build your research profile.

The session ends with an opportunity to reflect back and to make an action plan for your networking and profile-buliding plans beyond the course.

Led by: Rui Pires Martins (QMUL), and Lydia Klimecki (Bristol)

Running time: 90 minutes (or run as a half-day with Session 5)

This programme is a collaboration between Queen Mary University London, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Imperial College London, King’s College London, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, University of Portsmouth, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Sheffield, and University of York.

Collaborate with us!

This project is a collaboration enabled by Researcher Developers and Careers Consultants from the Researchers14 network. To keep being able to offer this course, we would like to invite other institutions to join the collaboration!

Each run offers places for 10+ for postdoctoral researchers for each partnering Higher Education Institution.

To partner, each institution needs contribute, plan, support, or co-deliver/facilitate on at least one of the six sessions.

  • Plan, co-deliver/facilitate one of the six sessions (10 places for postdocs)
  • Provide Support for the administration and communications for the course (10 places for postdocs)
  • Contributing a speaker from your institution on one of the sessions (3 places for postdocs, per speaker)
  • New partners can earn up to 3 places for observing a session with plans to deliver in future
  • Places can be distributed over the three runs of the year

We have developed a core set of delivery and administrative resources to support new partners joining our delivery team.

If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Dr Rui Pires Martins for more information.

the insititutional logos of Queen Mary University of London, Unviersity of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, University of Glasgow, Imperial College London, King's College London, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, University of Nottingham, Portsmouth University, Queens University Belfast, and University of York
It was good to see there is not 'one way of networking'. People are comfortable with different networking styles, so it's all about finding the style that fits you.
— Former participant of Networking & Profile Building, University of Cambridge
Being given practical advice on how to present ourselves on social networks was really valuable.
— Former participant of Networking & Profile Building, Queen Mary University of London
This workshop was so different and mind-opening from other ones I attended before. Quite unusual interactive activities, such as Padlet and Kumospace made the workshop excellent.
— Former participant of Networking & Profile Building, University of Portsmouth
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