Academic and Researcher Learning and Development

Prosper’s ultimate goal is to open up the huge talent pool that exists within the researcher community, by using an open-access portal to offer career support and guidance. It is a new approach to career development that unlocks researchers’ potential to thrive in multiple career pathways

Prosper is an interactive tool co-created with employers, and has resources, to help you:

• Reflect, - on your career development journey and look at the skills, values and interests you possess with self-assessment tools and exercises to explore your identity and skill sets.
• Explore - Find out more about careers through informational interviews and networking.
• Act - Learn how to translate your skills for any career, and the steps to take to feel prepared for your next career move and embrace change.

This resource is open to all researchers and those who support them.

Find out more about this partnership between the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester and Lancaster University, see the Prosperwebsite.

The Change and Uncertainty toolkit aim to enable us to understand how we typically respond to change and uncertainty and offer some tools and techniques to develop our resilience.

There are other resources to help leaders and managers with change management. Please see the change management section of the Leadership and Management section of the website.

Lancaster has fully embraced a coaching and mentoring culture with a variety of options and opportunities to include coaching and mentoring into all aspects of University life. Most OD development programmes have a coaching element embedded and there are many skills workshops and a certificate in coaching to support these initiatives at all levels.

Please see Good Practice in Mentoring for Academic Development below to find out more about our new mentoring development session running for academics.

Interested in training to become a Coach? A Coaching Apprenticeship may be for you. Click on the link for further information.

The Engagement Learning and Development portal features toolkits, digital guides, videos and case studies to support the engagement activities of Lancaster University staff.

Aimed at researchers and professional services staff with a responsibility in this area, the portal is a one-stop-shop to support staff in delivering engagement and partnership activities including how to run events, working with the media, communicating research findings, influencing and negotiating and engaging with policymakers. It demonstrates how engagement can help further your career and has signposting to the teams and individuals at the University who can support your engagement activity.

Making mentoring work for you

Mentoring for Academic Development is a collaborative process which develops self-awareness, new learning, and broader perspectives, for all involved. A mentor can hold space for the exploration of new ideas, support good decision-making, and encourage plans to be put into action. Yet despite there being an established set of good practice with academic mentoring, the key principles of setting up and maintaining a collaborative partnership are often overlooked, limiting its effectiveness.

In this workshop, Charlotte Bonner-Evans will draw on her experience of running mentoring schemes in academic environments through her role managing the Future Leaders Fellow Development Network's Interdisciplinary Mentoring suite. She will present the educational ideas that underpin mentoring, hosting discussions and workshop activities that will allow participants to consciously select and design their own mentoring practice.

Date

22nd May 2024, 1.30pm-3pm (Online)

Strategic Career Planning and Mentoring

During this interactive online workshop you will reflect on your career choices and progression to date and consider how to strategically position yourself for success in the future. We will be offering two sessions one aimed specifically at the career of an Academic and one aimed specifically for the career of a Researcher

This Academic career development session will cover

• What factors are valued at each stage of an academic career
• Local and national promotion processes and how to showcase your academic achievements through a carefully crafted CV
• How to raise your profile and extend your networks within and outside of academia
• The power of mentoring and coaching to support your career development and progression into academic leadership

Tuesday 23rd April, 9.30am-12pm (Online)

This Researcher career development session will cover

• What factors are valued at each stage of a research career
• Local and national promotion processes and how to showcase your academic achievements through a carefully crafted CV
• How to raise your profile and extend your networks within and outside of academia
• The power of mentoring and coaching to support your career development and progression into leadership

Tuesday 23rd April, 1pm-3.30pm (Online)

Career Management

Visit the Career Management microsite to take stock of where you are now in your career and help you to plan for the future.

Workshops

A series of workshops designed to help with the practicalities of career progression.

Making the most of your LinkedIn profile

Got a LinkedIn profile, but not sure how to use it to your advantage? This session will help you understand the value of LinkedIn for your career and professional development. We will cover how to build a strong online profile, growing your network within your chosen profession or sector, and offer suggestions for creating engaging posts, content and updates. Examples of best practice in using LinkedIn from across Lancaster will also be shared.

Further dates to be announced. To express interest in this workshop please email OD.

10 Development Days

Researchers are expected to take ownership of their career, identifying opportunities to work towards their career goals and cultivate their independence. This includes engaging in a minimum of 10 days professional development (pro rata) per year as stated in Vitae’s Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the University’s Code of Practice. For guidance on appropriate development activity and how to apply for these days using the university’s request system, please see the OD Webpages.

• Lancaster's commitment to research talent
• The Code of Practice for development of research staff
• Online Vitae resources to support the professional development of researchers
• Networks such as LGBTQ and Parents & Carers
• Lancaster University Research Staff Association (RSA) supports and empowers research staff across all Faculties and Institutes to develop inspiring, progressive and fulfilling research career experiences, in an environment that maximises academic and research opportunities.
• Resources for Research Leaders, Principal Investigators, and Supervisors

Organising Successful Events Workshop

How do we organise events in this new and ever-changing climate? While a number of the key principles of events management remain in place, we have had to adapt our working practices to plan, deliver and evaluate successful online events.

Join Dr Anna Mackenzie, lead for the University’s central Events Team to discuss events management (for any size and all types of events, whether for academic or professional services purposes), share experiences, learn about new innovations to events at Lancaster, and above all hopefully gain some confidence! We will introduce you to the cross-University Events Network, signpost you to resources to support planning, and answer as many questions as possible. Bring your questions, musings and challenges to workshop with the group in a supportive environment and learn from each other.

Dates

• Book Wednesday 8th May 24, 1pm-4pm

There is an Events Network Teams site for advice and guidance and to post your questions on event management questions.

Effective Doctoral Supervision;

This re-designed programme has been developed around the UKCGE framework and will help you consider student-supervisor relationships and explore how to manage them more effectively. It will focus on the expectations of both parties; how to build and maintain supervisory relationships and strategies for dealing with potential problems.

Your questions and concerns will be addressed, and you will be provided with a toolkit for proactively managing your side of this important relationship.

We will encourage you to reflect on your existing skills and to share best practice with others, building a support network for the future.

You will need to commit to both half-day workshops and the follow-up peer coaching activity.

Dates

Lent Term

• Workshop 1: Monday 26th February, 9.30am-12.30pm (Face to Face)
• Worksop 2: Monday 4th March 2024, 9.30am-12.30pm (Face to Face)

Book Lent term session

Please note you will need to commit to both half-day workshops meaning you are only required to register once.

Building on the success of the Gaining Academic Promotions programme held last year, we are delighted to announce the programme will run again this year, under the new name Preparing for Promotion - Academic, Research and Teaching Staff. This programme isaimed at giving academic, research and teaching staff the best chance of achieving academic promotion.

This programme covers all stages of academic career progression. With strong input from the Athena Swan, Race Equality Charter and EDI teams, and the Faculty Offices, this programme has been designed to ensure academic promotion is available to all staff, and to encourage staff that have been underrepresented in the past to put forward academic promotion cases.

The programme will consist of a welcome by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Steve Bradley, an Institutional update by Phill Dixon, Director of People and Organisational Effectiveness, presentations on the promotions criteria, case studies and faculty input.

Please visit the Preparing for Promotion webpage to view the full programme.

Please contact OD if you have any queries or would like to register your interest.

The role of the PI (and CoI) is a vital one, both for the success of the University itself, but also in enhancing and supporting the career development and personal growth of the researchers, postdocs and PhD researchers employed within any given research project.

The new Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (Sept 2019) identifies three areas to which PIs (and universities more generally) must pay specific attention:

• Building a supportive research environment and culture
• Understanding good employment practice
• Supporting researchers’ professional and career development

To support our PIs a specifically-tailored session which offers a practical mix of Lancaster-based information and leadership considerations is being held. This will be linked both to the new Concordat, grounded in good research practice and based on feedback from existing PIs about the needs and gaps that they have identified in their own practice.

Upcoming programme dates

Book Tuesday 20th February 24, 9.30am-4pm (Face to Face)

Programme outline:

• Understanding the new Role of the Principal Investigator (both Academic and Managerial)
• Realising the importance of values in research
• Leading a Research Team - Purpose and Vision
• Growing a High performance and Supportive Research Team Culture

• Good supervisory and managerial practice
• Understanding delegation
• Support and Challenge – Career Development thinking for Research Leaders
• Thinking Bigger – Collaborations and Network-building

For researchers, much professional development and advancement is linked to successfully delivering projects. Any post-doctoral or early–career researcher will have had to organize, analyse and present an enormous amount of information, set goals, reviewed progress - and probably worked with others to encourage them to do the same. However, for many researchers and research leaders, these actions are not often contained within a cogent Project Management framework.

This programme offers two linked sessions (and a small amount of preparatory and interim work) that will equip researchers with practical tools and new ways of thinking to help them manage projects with confidence. At all times the programme will be contextually rooted in the realities of academic research management.

This focused programme will equip delegates with professional applied project management skills and an overview of various project-planning tools and techniques. The phased sessions will help participants to build a toolkit and an approach to projects that they can use with their own work and teams immediately and in any future projects. However, we will not be addressing issues specific to the administrative and financial systems at Lancaster.

Session 1 – Research Project Management Essentials

In the first session, we’ll tighten up the essential elements of Research Project Management and equip participants with a series of tools to help with:

• Understanding the value of coherent management in research projects and recognising contextual difficulties.
• Identifying and protecting the scope boundaries with a project (i.e. helping identify and work with what any given project 'is' and 'is not'.)
• Project planning and recognising the life cycle of a project
• Understanding, identifying and communicating with stakeholders
• Communicating objectives and timelines
• Managing risks and uncertainties within a project

Session 2 – Enhanced Management Practice

In the second session we’ll build on the material covered in session one, and explore

• Keeping things on track - Monitoring and Status Reporting
• Working with collaborative project teams
• Handling project changes, issues and crises
• Influencing project stakeholders

Dates

Book Tuesday 9th and 16th January 24, 9.30am-12.30pm

Book Wednesday 5th June and 12th June 24, 9.30am-12.30pm

Please note to get maximum value out of the programme you are required to attend both sessions. Therefore your registration will sign you up for both sessions.

This bespoke Researcher & Academic induction and development programme is for all those new to research at Lancaster. This interactive session will cover the essentials of working at Lancaster and follow with the opportunity to network with other new researchers to create connections for the future.

From attending this session, you will come away with:

• Key information, contacts and advice on processes and procedures to allow you to ‘get up to speed’ more quickly
• The opportunity to develop a support group from across all faculties and disciplines
• Introduce a range of support options including programmes, workshops and support groups such as the Research Staff Association

*Please note this programme does not replace any faculty or departmental induction but will enhance any local offering by giving direct access to support networks available to you.

Dates

Tuesday 30th January, 1pm-3.30pm (Face to Face)

Wednesday 22nd May, 10am-12.30pm (Face to Face)

Further support is available from

• Research Services Office
• Research Staff Association - Blog
• Research Staff Association - webpage
• Library- Research Data Management, and Research Intelligence Services

We are running termly information sessions for Research Grant Holders to support you in navigating the internal processes associated with running a research grant.

We will be joined by colleagues from across professional services teams, and we will be covering a range of topics including:

• clinical research
• contracts
• ethics
• expenses
• post-award processes
• procurement and travel
• training and development

Please note that you are required to attend both workshops, therefore you will only need to register once.

Dates

• Session One: Tuesday 21st November 9.30am-12.30pm (Face to Face)
• Session Two: Thursday 7th December, 1.30pm-4.30pm (Face to Face)

Register for the Research Bites

Concordat for the development of Researchers

Requesting and tracking the 10-development day entitlement for those on a research only contract. E.g. Indefinite with an end date.

Lancaster has launched a new centralised reporting mechanism for requesting and tracking the 10-development days researchers are entitled to, under the Researcher Development Concordat. This will replace any local systems and help with reporting under the terms of the Concordat action plan.

All researchers, research managers, PIs, CoIs etc should make themselves and their staff aware of the new process. Researcher staff will be able to request a development day using the HR self-service portal ‘PeopleXD’ and for managers/PIs to approve these development days.

These instructions will help you use the new reporting system.

Please see the Researcher Development Days Guidance for guidance on how to make the most of your 10 Researcher Development days.

This personal professional development activity falls outside of any agreed development for researchers to undertake their roles and should be discussed as part of their PDR conversation focussing on longer term career objectives.

The Lancaster Code of Conduct shows the responsibilities of the 3 stakeholder groups – the Institutional commitment, the responsibilities of the research manager and the expectations of the researcher, under each of the Concordat themes.

The Concordat

Any questions to OD@lancaster.ac.uk

A new series of reflective and interactive events to inspire and motivate those who lead research at Lancaster. They look at leadership at different levels and complement existing programmes.

Designed as a pathway with options for those with a variety of experiences, the series starts with a reflective workshop aimed at those just moving into research leadership, and those aspiring to leadership roles, helping them to explore their personal ambitions and create a development plan. There are two ‘stories’ sessions with input from a range of research leaders and a bespoke session for Lancaster’s Professoriate.

These sessions are aimed at different audiences, if you are in doubt as to which might be most appropriate for you, please contact OD for further information.

Share experiences

Intro to Research Leadership ‘Lead to succeed’ - theory and reflection

Who for? All those aspiring to move into leadership in a research environment and those who have already started their journey.

Providing researchers with the space to reflect on, consider and develop their personal research leadership development plan. Drawing on a range of experiential and interactive activities, the workshop adopts a values- and strengths-based approach to help researchers identify how developing effective research leadership can benefit them within their personal research environment.

When

Wednesday 13th March, 9.30am-4pm (Face to face)

The Professoriate – Vision – Themed sharing practice events on current institutional priorities

Who for? All Professors

Lead by the Senior Leadership Team including Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellors and other guests.

Come together with other senior members of the institution and share thoughts on the key strategic priorities. Each session will be hosted by a member of the senior leadership team, giving them a chance to share with you the latest priorities for their areas. With time for discussion and idea sharing this is an opportunity for you to explore how you might increase your influence and impact.

There are currently no dates scheduled for this workshop. To register your interest please email OD.

Time management for Academics

The workshop will provide attendees with a space to reflect on, consider and develop time management strategies for themselves. Drawing on a range of experiential and interactive activities, the workshop adopts a values- and strengths-based approach to help attendees identify how developing effective time management can benefit them within their personal research environment.

While the exact content of the workshop will partly depend on the needs of attendees on the day, we aim to ensure that after attending the workshop, attendees will:

• Understand they are not alone among academics with their concerns and challenges that they face in managing their time.
• Understand the three different components of time management and strategies for each (i.e., prioritisation, execution, procrastination).
• Identify and begin to develop key time management skills (e.g., the link between goal setting and scheduling, tracking and reviewing, prioritisation, pacing, overcoming procrastination, being assertive)
• Develop confidence and self-efficacy in themselves through improved time management.
• Collaboratively network with peers to facilitate their time management and productivity.

There are currently no dates scheduled for this workshop. To register your interest please email OD.

The Research funding: what you need to know for success series is of particular relevance to early career researchers, research staff, academics and PIs who are new to Lancaster or those who wish to have a reminder of best practices and support available.

Research funding: what you need to know for success

• Preparing a research funding application and unsure of where to start or who can help?
• Running a funded research project and not sure of your responsibilities or support available?

From exploring the funding landscape and identifying relevant opportunities, adhering to funder requirements and conducting your research with integrity, to considerations around impact and engagement, this series offers an overview of the research lifecycle and ensures you are connected with key contacts who can help you at Lancaster. The series is of particular relevance to early career researchers, research staff, academics and PIs who are new to Lancaster or those who wish to have a reminder of best practices and support available.

Workshop 1: Getting started: The Research Funding Lifecycle

1. Academic and research staff experiences of applying for research funding.

2. The research and funding landscape to help you understand where best to position your next research ideas to align with current priorities.

3. Colleagues from Research Services who support successful grants will join for short presentations on the roles and responsibilities of PIs and who is best placed to help you administer your project.

4. Clinical Research Support and sponsorship

4. Guidance on publication plans and open access requirements with support colleagues from the Library complete this first session.

This session will take place in person.

Dates

There are currently no dates scheduled for this workshop. To register your interest please email OD.

Workshop 2: Developing Successful Proposals

This workshop is designed for any member of academic or research staff from any discipline. This session will expose you to:

• Writing successful proposals from the perspective of academic and research staff and how to resubmit unfunded applications if needed. The university’s costing system will also be discussed including how you are supported to fully cost your research.
• The main areas of research integrity and governance, namely:
  • Ethical approval
  • Data management
  • Research contracts
  • Research information in Pure

The Research Excellence Framework (REF). An introduction to REF 2021

Dates

There are currently no dates scheduled for this workshop. To register your interest please email OD

In an increasingly competitive academic environment, having a social media presence is a valuable source of engagement and promotion of your scholarly work. Despite the endless possibilities, using social media for your scholarly communications can be a challenging task. Andy Tattersall, an Information Specialist at The School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at The University of Sheffield, will bring you up to speed with essential skills and offer top tips for using social media in a scientific context.

This programme is open to all LU academics and research staff who have an existing social media presence:

These sessions are designed to work as standalone workshops but can also be attended as a programme.

Workshop 1:Twitter and online reputation management

In this session we will begin by looking at Twitter as a tool to reach new audiences that include your academic peers, publishers, members of the general public and anyone else who would benefit from hearing about your research. We will explore the number one tool for communication by academics and go beyond the basics to show you how to navigate the Twittersphere and maximise your efforts using tips and tools to increase your impact. Finally, we will look at the thorny issue of reputation management and how to stay on the right side of social media and research communication. Following sessions will build upon this by showing you how to make professional-looking content to share across your social media platforms.

Wednesday 17th January 2024, 10am-12pm (Online)

Workshop 2: Social networks, video and animation creation

In this session we will build on the Workshop 1, we will go beyond Twitter and help you decide which other platforms to invest your time in. We will look at how you can make improvements to your various online profiles to increase your visibility and maximise your networks. For the majority of the workshop we will explore the more creative elements available to academics and research support staff when communicating their work. We will look at the possibilities of using video and animations as a way to create new outputs that can be accessed by wider audiences as well as showcase a few free and low cost tools that can be learned easily and applied to most research outputs

Wednesday 24th January 2024, 10am-12pm (Online)

Workshop 3: Podcasts, research blogging and working with the media

In this session we will look at some of the creative ways academics can proactively engage with wider audiences. The session will begin by showcasing how podcasts can be a cost-effective way to communicate a myriad of different outputs. The session highlights free tools that you can use to record, edit and host your very own podcast as well as the technical and ethical implications for doing so.

The second part of the session will cover writing for blogs and lay summaries and how to turn your complex academic paper into a short form, easier to digest article that can potentially gain media attention. We will also look at how AI might be able to help with these kinds of activities. Finally we will show how best to communicate your research across the media, the importance of owning the conversation. The session will teach academics and professional support staff how to engage with these mediums in a way that will demystify and build their confidence.

Wednesday 31st January 2024, 10am-12pm (Online)

Workshop 4: Infographics and altmetrics

In this final of four sessions we will explore infographics and how they can be used to help disseminate research. We will look at a few platforms for creating illustrative and eye-catching static and interactive content and show how easy it is for someone to create their very first eye-catching data driven or qualitative poster. Finally, we will tie things together by looking at altmetrics and how they can be employed to get a better understanding of how your research is being received across the media and social networks among other avenues of communication.

Wednesday 7th February 2024, 10am-12pm (Online)

Workshop 5 – We are here to support: voices from the Communications team

Delivered by colleagues from our in-house communications team, this information session will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the types of service and processes in place to support academic media engagement. This session will cover:

• Who we are and our services, using social media and press work as an example
• From the inception to completion: why it is important to considering media engagement throughout your research journey
• A collaborative approach: how to work together to maximise your research impact.

Wednesday 28th February 2024, 9.30am-11.30am (Online)