The Researcher Development Programme (RDP) have opened for registration a number of workshops and events taking place over March, see below some of the upcoming workshops and view the full schedule and details via our webpages.
Please note that workshops are added on a rolling basis so do keep checking our webpages for new additions throughout the Autumn term.
Stress, resilience and strengths: a digital workshop for doctoral researchers (ONLINE)
Date: 02 March 2023
Time: 09:30-12:30 (UK)
Workshop description: Layered difficulties deepen stress and can rob us of our sense of control. This session could help you manage stress better, focus on your resilience when you need to, and create a greater sense of agency, whilst acknowledging and working with the very real limitations you might be experiencing. A (very) brief overview of stress will equip you with an understanding of general responses, from which you’ll identify how stress is affecting you personally right now. Having insight into your current landscape, you’ll then work with three specific stress-management / resilience tools, in partnership with other researchers on the workshop. You’ll decide what you might do, in your situation, and how to take small practical actions to focus on what you can control, whilst managing your reactions to what you cannot.
Book now via SussexDirect
Looking after yourself: Unpacking self-care strategies (CAMPUS)
Date: 06 March 2023
Time: 13:00-14:30 (UK)
Workshop description: How to tailor self-care to what you really need what are its limits? Self-care has become trendy during the pandemic, but our assumptions about self-care can easily stop us and it entails some work and technique. This is partly because humans are irrational beings and thus there are limits to thinking rationally about mental health. There will be time for everyone to unpack and share thoughts about their own strategies and barriers to self-care in a supportive atmosphere.
Book now via SussexDirect
Handling perfectionism and imposter phenomenon (ONLINE)
Date: 07 March 2023
Time: 10:00-12:00 (UK)
Workshop description: Perfectionist behaviours and imposter feelings mean we sometimes get in the way of our own success – forms of self-sabotage. Experiencing either (or both) may mean you put yourself under more pressure to achieve, whilst at the same time your stress increases, productivity declines, and confidence is undermined. This digital workshop will introduce you to some techniques to minimise, address, and (with practice) overcome these unhelpful thinking patterns so that you can effectively handle perfectionist behaviours and imposter feelings if they arise.
Book now via SussexDirect
Managing your research data (ONLINE)
Date: 07 March 2023
Time: 14:00-16:00 (UK)
Workshop description: How safe is your research data? What would happen if you lost it all? This session will help you to write a data management plan that will keep your data safe, secure, and organised. It will also cover how to find existing datasets and share your own data to increase your citations.
Book now via SussexDirect
A Comparison of Qualitative Methods (ONLINE)
Date: 08 March 2023
Time: 13:00-15:00 (UK)
Workshop description: This session will compare and contrast the aims, data collection preferences, analytic style, limitations and appropriate usage of four different qualitative methods – grounded theory, thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis and narrative analysis – in order to identify the types of research questions to which each method is best suited. The possibility of conducting by-person or case analyses using qualitative data will also be considered.
Book now via SussexDirect
Improve your literature searching skills (CAMPUS)
Date: 09 March 2023
Time: 11:00-12:30 (UK)
Workshop description: Literature searching is an essential part of doctoral research. This workshop explores how to effectively apply search strategies and techniques to online databases in order to find the most relevant literature to support your research. Using the multidisciplinary databases Scopus and Web of Science as examples, the facilitators will demonstrate effective search techniques and discuss the development of literature searching strategies for doctoral projects. This session includes time to develop and test your own search methods – please bring a computer with you if you’d like to do so.
Book now via SussexDirect
Take 5: Digital productivity for researchers (ONLINE)
Date: This is an online course, running from Monday 13th to Friday 17th March 2023
Workshop description: In this short online course, running from Monday to Friday, we will be exploring and learning together by looking through how digital technologies and services can support us to work in more efficient, dynamic and connected ways. Members of the Educational Enhancement team will be on call to answer questions, contribute to discussions and try out things with you. It’s up to you when you engage with the course and how much time you spend on it, but you should be able to cover the basics in 30 minutes a day.
Book now via SussexDirect
Preparing for your Science viva (CAMPUS)
Date: 13 March 2023
Time: 09:00-12:00 (UK)
Workshop description: The doctoral viva can be a daunting experience for which you need to be well-prepared. This workshop will de-mystify the viva process & requirements, & provide you with useful guidance on preparing for the big day. You’ll also hear examples of real questions & experiences from recent successful vivas across different Schools, & benefit from the opportunity to participate in a mock viva.
Book now via SussexDirect
Postgraduate funding: Considering the alternatives (ONLINE)
Date: 13 March 2023
Time: 10:00-12:00 (UK)
Workshop description: Are you a current PhD or PGR student who needs extra funding for fees, living expenses, research, conference or 4th year PhD writing-up costs? The workshop will be delivered by Dr. Luke Blaxill, who won 45 separate grants from charities and trusts as a postgraduate student and whose story has been featured in several national newspapers and on TV. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to identify the appropriate alternative funding bodies for you, find them via books and the internet, and apply strongly and correctly.
Book now via SussexDirect
Looking after yourself: Your own mental health and wellbeing (CAMPUS)
Date: 13 March 2023
Time: 13:00-14:30 (UK)
Workshop description: Why are your mental health and wellbeing different and how to understand and approach both within your specific situation? The workshop will highlight how every experience is different and therefore that solutions to wellbeing challenges and mental distress are also unique to individuals. Sophie will explain how visualising mental health separately form wellbeing can help understand your own situation and strategise. We will talk about the importance of monitoring your mental health/wellbeing over time, and how to do this by learning your triggers and relevant self-care strategies.
Book now via SussexDirect
Stand out CVs for PhD researchers (ONLINE)
Date: 14 March 2023
Time: 12:00-13:15 (UK)
Workshop description: Find out how to produce an excellent CV for roles inside and outside academia after your PhD. This webinar will look at different styles and approaches to help you market your skills effectively. By the end of the session, you will understand the difference between CVs for academic and industry jobs, learned about ways to enhance your CV to showcase your skills, knowledge and experience, and know where to find further resources.
Book now via Careerhub
Keeping up to date in your subject (ONLINE)
Date: 15 March 2023
Time: 11:00-12:30 (UK)
Workshop description: There are a number of quick & effective ways to keep yourself up to date with the research going on in your subject area. This workshop will explore the tools and techniques available. By the end of the workshop you will have learnt how to set up database alerts to discover newly published articles & track relevant citations & authors, discovered services for keeping up to date with new issues of journals & tools for discovering forthcoming conferences and found out about using key resources & social media to discover who is researching in a similar field to you.
Book now via SussexDirect
Qualitative Interviewing (ONLINE)
Date: 15 March 2023
Time: 13:00-15:00 (UK)
Workshop description: This session will consider three different types of interviewing (structured, semi-structured and unstructured), but with a particular focus on semi-structured or ‘qualitative’ interviewing. Other issues covered will include the nature of interview questions, the design and structure of an effective interview schedule and the mechanics of conducting a successful interview (with different people and to deliver on our research aims). The idea is to share experiences, knowledge and potential ‘tricks-of-the-trade’. Time will be allowed for raising questions and/or issues pertinent to your own PhD studies.
Book now via SussexDirect
Planning the Final Year of Your PhD (ONLINE)
Date: 16 March 2023
Time: 12:00-15:00 (UK)
Workshop description: There’s so much to fit into to your final year and careful planning is essential. With clear guidance, individual exercises, and group discussion, this practical workshop helps you prepare for the last stages of your doctorate, including submission, the viva, and what happens next. Please note, there is a separate workshop that goes into much more detail on the viva.
Book now via SussexDirect
Looking after yourself: Getting help/support for mental health problems (CAMPUS)
Date: 20 March 2023
Time: 13:00-14:30 (UK)
Workshop description: When should you seek help and how to navigate support services at Sussex and beyond? It can be daunting to start seeking help about our mental health. What are examples of mental health problems? Can we get help for ‘just’ anxiety? What are the different pathways to services and which to choose? How to contact them? We will discuss experiences of different services so that you leave the session with a clearer picture of how you or your peers can get help and feel confident about doing so.
Book now via SussexDirect
Using Elements – your Sussex research profile explained (ONLINE)
Date: 21 March 2023
Time: 12:00-13:00 (UK)
Workshop description: This workshop will demonstrate the university’s central research management system, Elements. Explore the benefits of building your digital profile to showcase your research and teaching activities.
Book now via SussexDirect
Scientific writing: structure, language and style (ONLINE)
Date: 22 March 2023
Time: 10:00-13:00 (UK)
Workshop description: 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.
Book now via SussexDirect
Accessible Presentations (CAMPUS)
Date: 23 March 2023
Time: 10:00-11:00 (UK)
Workshop description: Accessibility is the practice of making sure that the content you produce or deliver is understandable and useable by people with disabilities. In this session we’ll look at what we mean by disability and why it is important, then we’ll look at some key principles for producing and delivering accessible presentations.
Book now via SussexDirect
Analysing Qualitative Data (ONLINE)
Date: 23 March 2023
Time: 13:00-15:00 (UK)
Workshop description: This session will consider and discuss a range of issues relative to the micro-analysis of qualitative data. Using example data throughout, issues covered will include the analyst’s perspective (the aims and nature of their engagement with the data), coding systems, how to choose extracts for analysis in a systematic fashion, the meaning and importance of interpretation, generalizing from qualitative findings and various write-up issues, including the relationship between the analysis and discussion sections of a qualitative report and the creation of impact.
Book now via SussexDirect
Introduction to Open Access Publishing (ONLINE)
Date: 24 March 2023
Time: 10:00-11:30 (UK)
Workshop description: This workshop will introduce you to Open Access (OA) publishing and what this means for you as a researcher. We will cover an introduction to Open Access developments and debates, the different routes to making your work Open Access, the benefits of making your doctoral thesis more widely available, consideration of publisher attitudes towards publishing open theses: fact vs fear, and finding OA material to support your own literature searches.
Book now via SussexDirect
One-day Academic Writing Retreat (CAMPUS)
Date: 28 March 2023
Time: 09:30-16:30 (UK)
Workshop description: Are you struggling to get started with your academic writing? Or have you hit a block? If so, this intensive one-day writing retreat can help you get back on track and make significant progress with your article or book. You get the time and space to focus. With guidance from an experienced facilitator, you’ll set realistic goals and achieve them in a supportive environment. The programme includes warm-up exercises, group discussion, 1-2-1 coaching, and plenty of time to immerse yourself in writing. And you’ll receive instruction in advance on how best to prepare for the retreat. We will also provide lunch and refreshments throughout the day.
Book now via SussexDirect
Understanding Publication Metrics (ONLINE)
Date: 30 March 2023
Time: 10:00-11:00 (UK)
Workshop description: Bibliometrics & altmetrics are frequently used to demonstrate the impact & influence of research. This workshop will introduce some of the most commonly used bibliometric indicators and tools. It discusses the importance of the responsible use of bibliometric data, the problems and limitations associated with its use, and which indicators are appropriate in which contexts. It will also look at the University’s commitment to the use of responsible metrics.
Book now via SussexDirect
Entrepreneurship for finalist PhD researchers (ONLINE)
Date: 30 March 2023
Time: 10:00-11:00 (UK)
Workshop description: This workshop will give you an overview of entrepreneurship and the support available to you from the Entrepreneurship team at Sussex. We’ll explore pros and cons of starting a business/social enterprise or freelancing, approaches to developing your idea, key considerations – business planning, protecting your idea, legal structures, funding options, support from the Sussex Entrepreneurship Team – workshops, resources, and 1:1 appointments.
Book now via Careerhub
Using NVivo for qualitative research (ONLINE)
Date: 30 March 2023
Time: 10:00-11:30 (UK)
Workshop description: his session will introduce students to the NVivo software package, which is designed to help in the organisation, management and analysis of qualitative data. All the basic functions of NVivo will be covered, including the importation, storage, and organisation of various data sources, the potential for transcription, the creation of cases and nodes, classifications and attributes, and the meanings of these terms will be explained.
Book now via SussexDirect
Researcher Development Team
Doctoral School | University of Sussex
Sussex Researcher Development Programme
@SussexDocSchool
Doctoral Connections 