Training and support

Exeter’s Doctoral College stimulates, supports and sustains a vibrant research and intellectual environment across and between disciplines for postgraduate and early career researchers. Focusing on investment and development in training, resources and facilities, they provide an outstanding quality experience for those in the early stages of their research careers. 

• Training and Development – researcher development essentials, data essentials, writing essentials, sharing your research essentials and career development essentials.  
• Postgraduate Research Showcase - provides an opportunity to promote the up and coming talent of Exeter's research base and give postgraduate researchers the opportunity to develop their presentation, communication, and impact skills.
• Researcher-led Initiative Award - annual funds to support the development and cascading of personal, professional and career management skills by and for postgraduate research students and early career research staff across the University of Exeter.  
• PGR Study Space – an online space to work alongside other PGRs, run by PGRs. These are facilitated sessions using the pomodoro technique. This environment offers support and friendship. For more information, follow them on twitter @PGRStudySpace.  

The Early Career Researcher (ECR) hub support ECRs in training and development; initiatives and funding; support; news and events.

• Researcher Development training programme providing access to courses mapped against the national Researcher Development Framework, a tool that helps you consider your professional development as a rounded researcher. Topics include: research ethics review, conducting effective PPIE, developing effective networks for research projects and sharing research data.  
• Dedicated careers coach with whom you are able to book a 1-2-1 appointment to discuss your next steps and options. 
• The Research and Innovation Essentials Series gives vital information to researchers about the research grant lifestyle, from application to grant management. Researcher Development Training Programme (part of the ECR hub)
• Access to any of the courses ran centrally by the Learning and Development team.
• The Exeter Academic focuses on how the University continues to create the right environment for our academic community to be the best that they can be.
• The Open Research team supports Research Data Management and Open Access. That includes the institutional repository ORE, central open access funds and publishers’ agreements to publish in open access without costs. 

UoE Management Essentials - aimed at colleagues looking to build fundamental skills and knowledge of people management. Colleagues on this pathway are likely to be new to their managerial role or still in the early stages of their management journey.  

The Leadership Difference - this is the University’s core leadership development programme for Academic and Professional Services leaders. The programme promotes a professional and supportive leadership community and recognises the role of leadership in enabling our institutional ambitions and embedding the Universities values.  

Additional opportunities for Women Leaders include:

• Aurora: Women's Leadership Development
• Elevate: Leadership Development for BAME Women 

Every researcher, regardless of discipline or career level, can make a valuable contribution to policy-making, and there are various routes you can take to engage with policy-makers in a way that is relevant to your research and fits into your impact strategy. Policy@Exeter Resources Hub provide a monthly programme of in-house training and advice sessions. These sessions are available to all members of staff and students at the University regardless of career level or discipline. 

Get in touch with the UoE Policy Team if you have any questions or would like a 1:1 to discuss how to develop your policy engagement strategy.  

You can subscribe to their newsletter here to be kept up to date. 

The Coding for Reproducible Research team deliver a series of hybrid workshops focused on supporting research staff to develop and expand their computing skills. The programme covers training relating to good practise and reproducible working methods that is designed to be agnostic of programming language.

Courses to be offered include the below:

• Introduction to R - Beginner to Intermediate (3-part course)
• Computational Thinking (2-part course)
• Introduction to Unix (2-part course)
• Introduction to Python (2-part course)
• Introduction to Software Development for Research (2-part course)

See further details and upcoming courses.  

Training and development opportunities at both the Faculty and/or Department or Discipline level are also available for you to access.

• Biomedical Informatics Hub - offers a number of advanced training courses aimed at developing the skills necessary to handle a wide range of quantitative and mathematical analyses of biological and medical data. The courses are available to PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and staff covering things such as R, Linux, Python and ImageJ.
• Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI) - aims to develop innovative approaches to the use of data and artificial intelligence in modern society. The Institute is a step change in the University of Exeter’s data analytic capabilities enabling cutting-edge fundamental research, driving new collaborations and creating transformative impact. The institute offer a range of technical short courses and training, events and data science support.
• Medical School Courses - opportunities designed and delivered by faculty who are role models for combining healthcare expertise with research-led education. At the heart of their approach is a strong, supportive partnership to help you develop the advanced skills and knowledge you need to make a positive contribution to the delivery of care. Courses include, for example:
  Genomic Medicine Transforming Patient Care in Diabetes,
  Systematic Reviews of Mixed Methods Evidence and
  Principles of Health Protection. 

The University has created a centralised Research Software Engineering (RSE) group that will assist the research community with complex and bespoke research software needs. You can find out about all the courses they offer on their website. If there is a course you are particularly interested in attending, please sign up to their mailing list to get priority notification of when it opens. 

Early Career Researchers have access to the University's  One Step Beyond mentoring scheme, an academic mentoring scheme which spans across all faculties. Participating in the scheme is an entirely voluntary, but formal, arrangement whereby a mentor, outside the reporting relationship, holds regular meetings to support the development of a less experienced member of staff. This could be someone at a higher grade or a peer who has experience in the areas you have identified.  

From August 2024, the Clinical Academic Training Programme will offer a centralised mentorship programme so do check back in for further details to be published shortly. Furthermore, a buddy scheme will be launched, whereby senior clinical academic trainees will be paired with those at a more junior level to provide support. This will be an informal arrangement with no prescribed structure or expectations. 

The NIHR Academy is at the heart of the NIHR and is responsible for the development and coordination of NIHR academic training, career development and research capacity development. It includes all NIHR-funded people working in the NHS, universities and registered charities in England.

If, via your clinical academic training programme, you receive funding from the NIHR, you will automatically become an NIHR Academy member and as a result, have access to a variety of infrastructure support and development opportunities, including access to events, workshops and webinars held throughout the year.

Training highlights include: 

• NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme is for early career researchers who are new to reviewing or want to develop their skills further. The scheme offers members the opportunity to gain experience of peer review for NIHR funding programmes and in turn influence research commissioning. As a scheme member you will receive feedback on your reviews, have access to experienced reviewers’ comments and be notified of the committee’s decision about the research brief or proposal you have reviewed. You must be an NIHR Academy member and be in the final year at doctoral level or be postdoctoral.  
• NIHR Leaders Support and Development Programme seeks to maintain and improve the quality of leadership in health and social care research. The NIHR aim to do this by meeting the development needs of current leaders and early to mid-career researchers within the NIHR. Provision currently includes:
  • Future-Focused Leadership Programme - flagship leadership programme for NIHR Leaders and NIHR Emerging Research Leaders. 
  • The NIHR Academy Mentoring Programme - offers post-doctoral NIHR Academy Members the opportunity to seek support for their academic and career development from a mentor drawn from the NIHR leadership community.
  • Leadership Development Resources - a suite of flexible, online modular resources to support your leadership and management development.

Additional capacity building opportunities to get involved in include:

• Team Science Camp and Award – an annual initiative designed to support researchers to form new interdisciplinary collaborations and enable research in areas of need.
• NIHR Incubators – a community-driven approach to address areas/disciplines where there is a need to build research capacity on a national level. 

A long-standing cornerstone of the professional development opportunities offered by GW4 Alliance, the shared training scheme facilitates the principle of freedom of movement by allowing staff and students at any GW4 university to access the training and resources from across the four institutions - Exeter, Bath, Bristol and Cardiff.

GW4 offers a range of funding and development opportunities across the four universities, available to both staff and doctoral students to support the research endeavour (including collaborative research networks, expert training opportunities and shared resources e.g. GW4 Treasures and shared equipment). The GW4 also hosts a range of events.

Training highlights include:

• GW4 Connect - a suite of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programmes which will bring together postgraduate researchers from diverse backgrounds to form networks of support for marginalized and underrepresented communities in higher education.
• GW4 Crucible - an early career researcher leadership development programme that brings together 30 competitively selected future research leaders to explore how they can enhance their career through interdisciplinary, cross-institutional research leadership and collaboration. 

The Academy of Medical Sciences is a champion for those working in biomedical and health research in the UK. They offer an innovative range of programmes and career development work supporting biomedical and health researchers, encouraging people to embark on a career in medical research. Highlights are outlined below:

• Mentoring programme - provides post-doctoral and independent biomedical and health researchers with career development support by pairing them with an Academy Fellow.
• Future Leaders in Innovation, Enterprise and Research – a unique programme developing leaders of the future who can create collaborations across academic, industry, the NHS and government to drive innovation.
• Career development events across the UK for pre- and post-doctoral researchers in biomedicine and health, to give practical skills and the chance to network with colleagues. An event highlight includes the annual Clinical Academics in Training Conference – a unique event that brings together clinical academics (from all professional backgrounds) from across disciplines to present their work, and to develop their networks.
• Grant Schemes, including those targeted specifically at clinical academics e.g. Clinical Scientist Fellowships, Starter Grants for Clinical Lecturers and Springboard – Health of the Public 2040 (only for NMAHPPs). 
   

The Clinical Academic Training Hub (CATCH) aims to be the home for information on clinical academic careers. The purpose of this site is to:

• Showcase and promote the wide variety of exciting career options in clinical academia across a range of healthcare disciplines
• Provide practical advice on clinical academic career options across all four nations of the UK
• Highlight inspiring clinical academics at a variety of career stages to help build aspirations
• Build links between clinical practice and academia

The information on this website is intended to be introductory rather than exhaustive. CATCH aims to answer many of the broader questions around clinical academic careers; what they are, who they are for, and how you might take the first steps toward a clinical academic career of your own.