Workshops

Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a choice of training workshops that have been built into the conference programme, and which are being delivered by leading training providers.

Which skills will you develop at the event? Your choices are:

• An interactive session on the practical application of project management to research projects (with Dr Robin Henderson of Skillfluence).
• A 3-hour grant writing session as an entry point to winning funding (Dr Laura Knogler of Scriptoria).
• Dynamic Presenter Training – with experts who will coach you in how to deliver engaging and impactful scientific presentations.
• Introduction to Design Thinking – develop practical and creative problem solving leading to actionable outcomes (Andrew Halfacre of Skillfluence).
• Harnessing LinkedIn to Boost Researcher Identity – learn how to promote yourself online (Dr Hannah Robertson of Skillfluence).
• Scientific Writing Workshop – learn how to become better communicators of complex scientific ideas (Nature Research Academies).

Please choose your workshop when you register for the conference. Click through the registration process for more details.

This interactive workshop will explore the practical application of project management to research projects. Working through a project lifecycle we will explore:

• How to work with collaborators and stakeholders to define project success
• How to effectively plan projects taking into account the iterative nature of research
• How to pre-empt issues and risk manage the project
• How to assess progress and resolve issues with the project.

Throughout the workshop we will discuss how the same skills that can be applied within research can be applied to future projects that participants may undertake both within and beyond academia.

We’ll us a blend of plenary input and lots of small group discussions (project success), group work (identifying and mapping stakeholders, work breakdown structures, risk management), and signposting to additional resources (including project management tools, sector specific resources, project management best practice).

Programme Feedback

“I think it was great! I loved that it was someone who really had insight into research and could tailor the training to us.”

“I like the training approach. The trainer involved the participants by asking comments and questions about a topic before introducing it. It enhanced my attention.”

Delivered by Dr Robin Henderson.

This 3-hour grant writing session is your entry point to winning funding — whether you’re writing an application for your first travel grant, postdoctoral fellowship, or the funds to run an independent research project.

This session will have an interactive format to keep things interesting, including top tips from an experienced trainer, facilitated discussions around common questions, group exercises to get you thinking, and guest appearances from Faraday researchers describing their own funding journeys.

Key benefits

By the end of this session, participants will be able to

• identify relevant funding calls for their career stage
• understand the key requirements for each part of a funding application
• tailor their ideas to the right audience (reviewer).

Delivered by Dr Laura Knogler.

About us

Established in 2001, Scriptoria has been running in-house and online training courses in grant writing, article writing, communications and project management for top scientists from research institutions and the commercial sector worldwide for nearly twenty years. You can find out more about Scriptoria’s training courses at scriptoria.co.uk/training-courses.

This is one of our most popular courses, including a wide toolkit of skills that are required for dynamic presenting to audiences of all sizes. This course is adapted for every audience, to focus on your specific needs, such as pitching ideas internally, influencing upwards or making data updates more compelling.

Whether you are presenting virtually or face-to-face, this will provide you with a range of skills for all personal and professional situations.

Increase your confidence in your presentation skills and be able to present with more impact to gain greater reactions for your ideas. Be able to express important business messages that people want to hear.

Learn our business storytelling method that is easy to apply to presentations, pitches, emails, and documents to have more influence. We look at how to start a business presentation, engage your audience throughout with body language, articulate your message clearly, and finish with impact. Our methodology is all based on science and is proven to make a difference.

Manage objections with confidence, gain buy-in for your ideas and achieve greater engagement from your audience. Have a tool kit of techniques ready to approach any challenging conversation or tough question to create a win/win resolution and resolve conflict.

Design thinking is a human centric approach for practical and creative problem solving leading to actionable outcomes. This introductory session is fast paced, intellectually stimulating and highly interactive bringing an evidence-based approach to Design Thinking for real world challenges.

Participants are introduced to the concept of design thinking using participatory, interactive approaches enabling them to explore the key elements of the process. Participants will develop familiarity with the key principles of design thinking, gain a practical understanding and be equipped with a practical toolkit of approaches that can be utilised both within a research and development context and with external partners.

Programme Feedback

Amazing delivery, Very Engaging, Insightful and Extremely Useful Information that has given me so much confidence to be able to digest and deliver on any project. This course has helped me overcome the challenges I currently have with my research questions – I feel so elated.

Delivered by Andrew Halfacre.

Learn how to promote yourself online. If you are looking to network for job opportunities, collaborations or to future proof your career; discover the etiquette, strategy and approach to maximise your time virtually and measure and test the outputs of your efforts.

This workshop is designed for researchers who want to learn a systematic approach to networking and making connections using LinkedIn. Participants will find out about the three stages of networking – expanding your network; interacting with your connections and how to use your network to identify new or make the most of existing opportunities.

Designed for researchers who want to network to increase the impact of their work, identify collaborators find jobs and other opportunities. Find out how to create an online presence that draws attention to your profile and how to expand your network significantly. Learn how to monitor this expansion and use it to track your success.

“nice clear strategies for how to grow social media following, which make it seem a) more doable and b) more worth trying!”

Delivered by Dr Hannah Robertson.

The goal of this workshop is to help researchers improve their scientific writing, become better communicators of their complex scientific ideas and increase their impact their strategic writing techniques. This workshop will provide practical insights and strategies that attendees can easily apply after the workshop. The workshop contains numerous interactive elements and activities to stimulate engagement amongst participants. A workbook will be available for the attendees that will include key points, useful online resources, and activities that will be covered in the workshop.

Effective academic writing (13:30 – 15:00) This section will emphasize how to clearly communicate your ideas in research articles by discussing how to implement effective strategies — related to brevity, ambiguity, and logical flow — in writing. We then review strategies to improve readability to ensure that complex scientific ideas are more easily understood and accessible worldwide.

Writing effective titles, keywords, and abstracts (15:15 – 16:15) This section begins with how to write a title that will catch the reader’s attention when they are looking for articles online. We then discuss the importance of keywords and strategies for choosing ones that will increase your discoverability. Finally, we discuss strategies for writing an impressive abstract to improve your impact and influence in the field.

Delivered by Nature Research Academies