Research Training: Engagement, influence & impact
Researcher Development Framework - Domain D

Knowledge of:
Knowledge of:
The course is designed as interactive and practical, but as the aim is to instil confidence in interaction with the media, trainees are taken through guidelines, techniques and mnemonics before engaging in practical exercises.
These include understanding the elements of a good news story, techniques for taking control of the interview, and for handling difficult or aggressive questioning.
The final exercise is the most exciting and challenging, a filmed TV interview, which is then analysed in playback. The trainers prepare individual interview scenarios, so it is vital they have the names and study interests of each participant before the training.
Detailed handouts are provided to reinforce the lessons after the workshop has ended. Even if you have no plans to talk to journalists, the communication you’ll gain will help you in any situation where you need to explain your ideas to people outside your field—potential funders, cross-disciplinary collaborators or businesses.
Intended learning outcomes:
By the end of the workshop the participants will
Facilitator: Tim Grout-Smith and Lily Poberezhska, Media Players International
Applicability: Suitable for most research students and research staffCourse dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
This session will introduce tools and journal metrics to use when identifying potential venues in which to publish, consider the strengths and weaknesses of these tools, and suggest evaluation criteria to aid decision making in choosing an appropriate journal.
Facilitator: Library Research Support
Applicability: Research students at any stage who have publications.
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
The session will explain why compelling a research poster is an essential job skill for academics. You will receive training on how to put together a compelling poster that will make your colleagues pay attention.
If you have already designed a poster and want to get feedback and feel comfortable to discuss it within the class please bring a copy to the session with you.
Facilitator: Daniela Oehring
Applicability: All research students
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
The Postgraduate Research Showcase is a platform for postgraduate student presentations. The showcase adopts a balanced approach where a presenter shares their knowledge with the audience and in return, the audience provides valuable feedback on their work.
The Doctoral College invites all postgraduate students to present their research findings and work in progress and to exchange ideas and experiences, showcase the excellent work of postgraduates and share best practices at the University of Plymouth.
We wish to invite all postgraduate students who are interested in communicating their research to join us and participate in this great event.
To register your interest to present, show a poster, exhibition or demonstration please contact researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk.
The successful selection of abstracts will be based on the appeal to both a wider and non-specialist audience.
Enquiries and audience bookings: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk.
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
This session will cover the essentials of preparing materials for oral conference presentations from a construction of slides and of the presentation itself to the physical logistics such as working with different sized audiences and different room shapes to tips when using lapel microphones and on throwing one’s voice.
Facilitator: Rich Boden
Applicability: Suitable for most research students and research staff.
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
The virtual practical academic writing surgery will address specific issues participants are experiencing in their academic writing, discussing ways to overcome these issues, as well as outlining critical elements of academic writing. It will introduce practical hints, tips and strategies for participants to use inrelation to the process of writing and offer guidance on ways participants can improve the quality of their work, further exploring how these might be interpreted in specific disciplines.
Discussing the shared experiences of all participants will provide a rich environment from which everyone will all be able to learn. The session is facilitated by Dr Joe Allison, who has more than fifteen years of experience in supporting and developing writing in higher education. This professional expertise is backed up by the personal experience of wrestling with his own doctorate over a seven-year period.
Facilitator: Joe AllisonCourse dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
The aim of this session is to enable participants to gain confidence in their presentation skills and improve their presentation performance. The session provides an overview of presentation skills and experiences for face-to-face and online audiences. The session also gives participants an opportunity to consider and improve their own presentation skills.
Participants are invited to practice a short presentation during the session and are encouraged ahead of the session to prepare a 3 minute presentation with slides on their research subject.
Facilitator: Sarah Kearns and Terri Rees
Applicability: Suitable for most research students and research staff.
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
The aim of this session will be to see how your research can have an impact in the wider world beyond academic. During the session, we will discuss what research impact means to academics, funding bodies and other stakeholders, how it relates to your own research and the importance of embedding impact strategies into your research from the earliest stages.
This workshop will have both taught and practical components, where we will discuss the potential and real impact of your individual research projects and interests.
Facilitator: Jane Minett
Applicability: Suitable for most research students and staff
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
This session will provide guidance on maintaining an accessible online prescence for your research outputs on databases such as ORCID, Web of Science and Scopus. It will also provide guidance on how tools such as Altmetric and Kudos can be used to monitor and maximise the visibility and impact of your research.
Facilitator: Library Research Support
Applicability: Suitable for all research students and staff
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
This session introduces the lanbdscape around Open Research, including 'Plan S', how it is affecting global scholarly communication and how this translates into local policy and practice for researchers in the UK.
Facilitator: Library Research Support
Applicability: Suitable for all research students and staff
Course dates and times:
Bookings and enquiries: researchskills@plymouth.ac.uk
Thesis Writing Retreat is an intensive and supportive writing environment for postgraduate research students. The idea is to give you the necessary time, space, and encouragement to make significant progress on your draft thesis. It is not designed to provide specific advice on editing, restructuring, or polishing a thesis – the focus of Thesis Writing Retreat is to enable you the space to write a large number of words.
Support is provided through writing space, short tutorials, group discussion, and 1:1 consultations with the facilitators. Attendees will be required to complete preparatory tasks to get the most out of the event.
Eligibility:
How to apply:
Course dates and times:
The event is non-residential however, participants are expected to commit to attending both full days on-campus.
All students and staff to have access to LinkedIn Learning, a continually growing and evolving library of training videos and tutorials covering a wide range of software, technologies and business topics. Students and staff members can take advantage of free 24/7 access to the entire library of training; this includes:
Getting Started