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Target audience:

 Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines.

Workshop description: 

Communicating your research to non-specialists in a concise and engaging way is a premier skill for researchers: not everyone does it well, yet everyone has the capacity to do so.

This intensive workshop brings together the crucial factors for success, and will help you to prepare if you're thinking about entering the Three Minute Thesis competition*. Take-away tools will support you in the early stages of choosing what to include (and what to leave out); constructing an engaging and meaningful narrative; and how to convey appropriate detail of your research (and its impact) in accessible language. Includes opportunities for experimentation in putting these skills into practice alongside the theory.

Engaging with this workshop will enable you to:

• Start constructing a concise and engaging narrative of your research
• Identify and express the 'so what?' of your research
• Select accessible language for articulating complex ideas
• Practice communicating your research to non-specialists

About the facilitators:

 This workshop is designed and delivered by Sarah Robins-Hobden

Target audience: Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines. Research staff are also welcome to book a place to attend this workshop.

Workshop description: Displaying information in a visual format is an excellent way for researchers to communicate their work. You can enhance your research papers, thesis, conference posters, presentations and public engagement activities with accurate and clear visual representations. This workshop is designed to introduce participants to various types of visual formats including standard graphs, information visualisations and graphics for publication.

There are a number of different ways to display your data or ideas visually and it depends on who you are aiming to engage and what you want to tell them. Building excellent graphics and summary figures takes time, practice and a willingness to learn the appropriate software. This workshop will provide an overview of information visualisation and further resources for participants to explore in their own time.

Data and information visualisation is a vast and rapidly growing field. This workshop covers the principles of visualising data, examples of excellent visualisations and poor visualisations and case studies including examples from the instructor’s own publications and experience.

At the end of this workshop researchers will have:

• been introduced to the principles of good information visualisation
• an overview of various types of visualisations and considered how they can represent their own work visually.

*Please note: this is not a workshop on digital tools, though a list of tools will be provided for participants to explore in their own time.

About the facilitators: The Scientific Editing Company is a training provider and communications company based in Edinburgh. They currently work with researchers in over 20 countries, helping them to communicate their work effectively. About the facillitaor: This workshop is designed and delivered by Joanna Young.

Target audience:

 Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines.

Workshop description: 

This workshop will introduce you to open publishing for your research outputs and what this means for you as a researcher.

This workshop will

• Introduce recent developments and debates within open publishing
• Explain the different routes to making your work openly available
• Consider the benefits of making your postgraduate research thesis more widely available ; publisher attitudes towards publishing open theses: fact vs fear
• Help you to identify and access open access material to support your own literature searches

Workshop feedback:

• "Excellent"
• "As someone who didn't know much about Open Access before, this workshop not only introduced me to the concept of Open Access publishing itself, but thoroughly took us through the ways in which we could do it ourselves"

Find out more about Open Access for researchers. 

About the facilitators: 

The Library Research Support team support researchers at all levels across the University. They offer bookable one-to-one sessions tailored to suit your specific research needs, run various group training workshops, & organise seminars & events to engage with the research community on campus. Together with the Hive Scholars, the team also look after the Sussex Research Hive, the Library's dedicated space for researchers.

Target audience: 

Postgraduate researchers at any stage and from all disciplines.

Workshop description: 

Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing means of communication for universities, be it a recorded series of lectures, a snapshot of research, or an advertisement to attract new students and/ or funding. There is no doubt podcasts are one of the most accessible windows through which to view your university, and your podcasts should reflect the quality of your institution.

This interactive workshop helps you build the skills to present a podcast in either a talk or interview format. It will help you:

• communicate effectively in your podcasts
• pitch your podcasts correctly to the intended audience
• choose the best format for your podcast

The session will be complemented by online resources on the technical aspects of recording, editing, and distributing your podcast.

About the facilitators: 

Target audience: Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines.

Workshop description: How can you display your research in an engaging visual format using accurate and clear visual representations? How should you present and discuss it during a poster session at an event? How can you use your poster to engage senior colleagues and expand your network?

Communicating your research on a poster is an excellent way to engage your peers, attract attention to your work and network with senior colleagues. Effective poster presentations require the researcher to consider several aspects such as design, data visualisation, image quality, key messages, concise written communication, public speaking and networking; it is therefore important to start planning your poster well in advance of the event.

This workshop is designed to introduce participants to effective poster design and networking strategy. It will also touch on some online tools and technologies that may be helpful for poster presentations. Short group exercises, case studies and the facilitator's personal experience will be included to illustrate key points.

Workshop feedback:

• "Having a go at presenting our own poster was useful to condense your thoughts but also to build confidence"
• "Finding out what happens at poster sessions and how they work made me think more about visual aspects of my research."
• "Helpful to know about which software to use, which fonts to use and ideas for how to make the poster look good."
• "Trainer was very good and knowledgeable"

About the facilitators: The Scientific Editing Company is a training provider and communications company based in Edinburgh. They currently work with researchers in over 20 countries, helping them to communicate their work effectively. About the facillitaor: This workshop is designed and delivered by Joanna Young.

Target audience:

All postgraduate researchers at all stages from any disciplines

Workshop description:

Conflict may arise in different ways during the course of your research - usually when a need isn’t being met, or a disagreement arises. Developing the way you understand and address conflict situations will improve your communication skills and your relationships, both within the research environment and outside of it. You will use conflict resolution theory to better understand colleague relationships and difficult situations. The focus is on learning to manage conflict in a more effective way, choosing from a range of techniques for handling conflict in contexts that are relevant to you.

This workshop is conducted in a safe and confidential environment where various issues related to conflict can be discussed.

Learning outcomes:

Engaging with this workshop will enable you to:

• Identify common scenarios, factors, and consequences of conflict
• Examine your motivations and behaviours to conflict
• Evaluate some conflict resolution approaches and techniques
• Translate aspects of the techniques into actionable steps towards improving your
communications and professional relationships

About the Facilitators

This workshop is designed and delivered by Dr Sarah Robins-Hobden

Target audience: 

Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines.

Workshop description: 

Researchers are writers. We communicate our results via articles, discuss the findings of others in reviews and use the literature as an immortal record of science from both past and contemporary research, therefore developing our writing skills must be given the same time and dedication as other phases of the research process. Writing is challenging, but it is an important skill that is developed and honed over time, it is a key component of the researcher’s skillset and one that they will use more than most.

Manuscripts must be clear and concise and written in a manner that is appropriate for that particular style of document. This workshop covers how to structure an original research paper, designing and planning your article, how to articulate your argument, what to highlight, good practice and what to avoid. The session will cover language, style and tone, using selected examples from the existing literature.

It includes a set of resources that participants can explore in their own time and consists of short lectures, discussions, individual exercises and anecdotes from the instructor’s own experience of writing and publishing articles.

At the end of this workshop researchers will have:

• understand what is expected of them regarding writing style and structure
• analysed and discussed examples of clear, concise scientific writing
• been given a range of resources to explore in their own time.

About the facilitators:

The Scientific Editing Company is a training provider and communications company based in Edinburgh. They currently work with researchers in over 20 countries, helping them to communicate their work effectively. This workshop is designed and delivered by Joanna Young.

Target audience: Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines.

Workshop description: This online workshop is designed specifically for researchers who are looking to develop their online presence and boost their career prospects through social media. There are now numerous channels available that can be used to amplify your research, promote an enterprising project and attract future employers. In addition, social networks can act as a valuable source of information and a personally tailored news feed.

We will explore different types of content that researchers can experiment with. What engages people? What should you post and what should you avoid? How should you manage your time on social media and optimise your engagement? In addition to designing an individual social media strategy, the workshop will include a section on legal considerations, privacy and openness.

The session will mention a selection of mainstream social media tools that can be used to build your online profile including LinkedIn and Twitter. Short exercises, case studies and the instructor’s personal experience will be included to illustrate key points. No prior experience is assumed so the course is suitable for beginners, however you may wish to set up a Twitter account prior to the session or be logged in to Twitter if you already have an account.

At the end of this workshop researchers will have:

• considered the various ways to use social media to their advantage;
• An awareness of the legal considerations and privacy issues;
• Started to design a social media strategy that they can implement in their own time.

About the facilitators: The Scientific Editing Company is a training provider and communications company based in Edinburgh. They currently work with researchers in over 20 countries, helping them to communicate their work effectively. About the facillitaor: This workshop is designed and delivered by Joanna Young.

Target audience: 

Postgraduate researchers at all stages and from all disciplines

Workshop description: 

This workshop will demonstrate the university's central research management system, Elements. It will explore the benefits of building your digital profile to showcase your research, professional and teaching activities. Please note this workshop is not relevant to postgraduate researchers within BSMS.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the workshop you will have:

• Learnt how to manage your public facing Elements profile
• Learnt how to claim and create publication records and deposit manuscripts to the repository
• Learnt how to capture information about professional and teaching activities

About the facilitators: 

The Library Research Support team support researchers at all levels across the University. They offer bookable one-to-one sessions tailored to suit your specific research needs, run various group training workshops, and organise seminars and events to engage with the research community on campus. Together with the Hive Scholars, the team also look after the Sussex Research Hive, the Library's dedicated space for researchers.