Example development activities include:
- Writing blogs and lay articles
- Research integrity training
- Academic writing training
- Grant / Fellowship writing training
- Presentation training for engaging with different audiences
- Interview panels and mock interviews
- Peer reviewing and peer review training
- Idea generation workshops or sandpits
- Accelerator programmes
- Engagement with learned societies
- Conference organisation
- Journal clubs or peer support / discussion groups
- Data management training and planning
- Deputising for your PI or line manager at collaboration meetings
- Library and information skills training
- Impact training and impact activities
- Ignite talks – pop up events where researchers describe their work in 5 mins.
Spotlight on activities to work with and develop research and innovation skills
What development activities helped you?
Find out from other research staff about the development activities that helped them to develop skills relating to research and innovation.
More examples
- Fellowship applications and mock panels
- Develop your writing skills
- Get involved in peer reviewing
- Blog writing and lay articles
- Become a Science Founder
"I like the idea of training around Fellowships, but especially the bits that allow you to sit on the mock panels and interview those who have applied. It helps you to be able to see things from the other perspectove to help you understand what you're doing. I think that was very, very important."
- Dr Julia Makinde, Benevolent AI (former Postdoc in the Department of Infectious Diseases)
"I did a two-day writing course with the PFDC. I sat in for one or two of those and they actually transformed me. I’d been sitting on the research, wanting to write it for ages, so just being able to get the permission from my team to go away and focus on this for two days made a huge difference. It drove not only my own personal research, but also the research of the team."
- Dr Julia Makinde, Benevolent AI (former Postdoc in the Department of Infectious Diseases)
Find out about:
"I have peer reviewed a reasonable number of papers. Every year I might be directly contacted by journals. I think it's very helpful: it makes you a better author to be a peer reviewer. But you need to be a good author to understand how to be a good peer reviewer. So, working on both sides of those things has been quite helpful."
- Dr Richard Kelwick, Postdoc in the Department of Infectious Disease
Find out about:
"I worked with a science communicator who guided me on writing articles on my research, and I ended up writing blog posts in Advanced Science News. So I also got to play the role of a science communicator outside Imperial. That was a very good visibility. I also went on to write a blog post for Nature Sustainability journal. That was an invited one, which was good recognition. Apart from that, because my communication skills kept in improving, I was invited to give talks at other universities like UCL and King's College London."
- Dr Pavani Cherukupally, MIT (former Postdoc in the Department of Chemical Engineering)
Find out more about:
"'Wilbe' are an organization that offer a program called Becoming a Science Founder that trains you in entrepreneurial skills. It helps you think about how to take your science and develop a commercial case for translating that science into products or services. It takes place each week for a few hours and involves mentorship, training and engaging with the network. They are partnered with, and have a lot of support from, Imperial College as well as other universities. A lot of the people on that program are entrepreneurs that have active businesses."
- Dr Richard Kelwick, Postdoc in the Department of Infectious Disease
Find out more: