Author Archives: Simone Apel

The 2016-17 PGR and ECR Skills Development Programme

Graduate School WorkshopsThe 2016-17 Graduate School’s development programme for postgraduate research (PGR) students and early career researchers (ECRs*) is now live in Gateway!

Booking is open for postgraduate research students, so just log into Gateway and click on Calendar (left hand menu) and you will see the full list of workshops, development days and events coming up. For full instructions on how to book and on Gateway’s development tools for research students, see this Hub post.  

Read the rest of this entry

Island Biology Conference seminars – you heard them here first.

Tenerife from the planeYou are cordially invited to a research seminar on Tuesday 12th July @1100 in Newton NW205. Duncan McCollin and Jeff Ollerton from the School of Science and Technology will be presenting two short seminars, which they will present later in July at a conference in the Azores.

Jeff and Duncan will be attending the Island Biology conference and each presenting these short (c. 15 minute) talks on recent research findings.

  • “Turnover dynamics of breeding land birds on islands: ‘true but trivial’ over decadal time-scales?” (Duncan)
  • “Spatio-temporal stability of island endemic plant-pollinator interactions” (Jeff)

All invited. Please come along if you can.

Lauren Samet to present in Soapbox Science Milton Keynes on Saturday 9th July

Soapbox science 2016From Exeter to Edinburgh, Manchester to Milton Keynes, women scientists will be taking to their soapboxes in popular public spaces such as parks, high streets and beaches to share their passion for science with the public.

University of Northampton research student, Lauren Samet, is taking part in Soapbox Science 2016 in Milton Keynes on Saturday. Soapbox Science is a series of events, organised by Bristol University, where female scientists talk about their research to the general public to get them interested in science and try to break some of the stereotypes that science is a male dominated industry.

It’s a free event and open to all. Lauren’s talk will be on Nutraceutical Use in Animal Welfare. Read the rest of this entry

Robinson Crusoe, apps, smart cities and harvest mice!

PGR conference 2016On Tuesday 14th June diverse research topics took the stage at The University of Northampton Graduate School’s 2016 Postgraduate Researcher Conference. 18 postgraduate research students, in various stages of their research degree, each presented a 10 minute paper, with other student colleagues chairing or helping organise the event.

The conference is held annually to give the University’s cohort of doctoral students a chance to present to a friendly audience, practice communicating their research and engaging a general academic audience with their project. They also get a chance, in 5 minutes of questions, to discuss their research in a supportive environment with an audience of fellow students, academics and supervisors. The conference was opened by Andrew Scarborough, the Chair of the Board of Governors, and speakers were chosen from across the University’s six schools. Read the rest of this entry

Essential PhD tips: 10 articles all doctoral students should read

The THE has some useful reading on their Website for research students.Whether you’re still deciding on doing a doctorate or you’re nearing the end of a PhD, there’ll be something of interest in these ten tips. They include…

  • 14 essential PhD questions answered
  • Choosing a PhD subject
  • The PhD experience: this far, and no further
  • 10 steps to PhD failure
  • How not to write a PhD thesis
  • Realistic expectations keep you on the path to a PhD
  • 10 truths a PhD supervisor will never tell you
  • Me and my PhD supervisor: tales of love and loathing
  • How to get students through their PhD thesis
  • How to get ahead with a PhD

Postgraduate Research Student Network Summer PGR get-together

All postgraduate research students are warmly invited to a postgraduate networking party, to be held after The Graduate School PGR Annual Conference in Holdenby Lecture Theatre 3 (HLT3), Park Campus on Tuesday 14th June at 4:30pm. Whether you’re doing a PhD, an MPhil or any of our professional doctorates you are all welcome to join us.

This will be a chance for all our PGR students to meet students from other Schools, socialise and enjoy a selection of drinks and snacks.Book your place here for catering purposes please  http://pgrsummerparty.eventbrite.co.uk

Why not come along to the PGR Conference first and see some of your fellow students present their research?

We look forward to seeing you there!
Lucy Atkinson & Simone Apel

Advanced research methods workshops for research students

Aston Summer School 2016Aston Business School, part of Aston University, are running a summer school for researchers in Birmingham and have opened their doors to PGR students by offering reduced rates.

The advanced research methods workshops are running from 20th June to 13th September and include Modelling Markets; Panel Data Models for Accounting and Finance; Experimental Designs in June, Data Mining and Big Data; Text Mining and Social Network Analysis; Multilevel Regression Analysis in July and Mapping Decision Making in September.

The workshops are open to all research students from any university. Reduced fees for students are from £75 for a 1-day course to £225 for a 3-day course.

The workshops are also open to research staff and industry researchers at a higher fee. See the Summer School website for more details and to book.

Open invitation to the Graduate School PGR Annual Conference 2016

2014 GS Conference

2014 GS conference

The University of Northampton Graduate School are holding their annual Postgraduate Researcher Conference on Tuesday 14th June and would like to invite staff and students from the University of Northampton to join us.

The conference provides an ideal development opportunity for new researchers to present their research, discuss and share good practice with others in an informal and non-threatening setting. There will be representation from all Schools and feature a diverse range of research activity.  Read the rest of this entry

Images of Research 2015-16 winners announced!

Kim Dodd's winning image

Kim Dodd’s winning image

The winners of the Graduate School’s Images of Research (IoR) exhibition and competition have been chosen!

There were two competitions – 3 winners chosen by guest judge, Roy Wallace, Senior Lecturer in Media Production at the University of Northampton, and a ‘People’s Choice’. The ‘People’s Choice’ competition votes were counted from those on paper at the exhibition at Avenue gallery corridor in February and the university library exhibitions, plus 300 online votes via the Research Support Hub.

Karen Anthony's Muscle by Numbers

Karen Anthony’s Muscle by Numbers

Congratulations to Kim Dodd, Helen Scott and Charmaine Sonnex who were Roy Wallace’s winners. The People’s Choice winners were Karen Anthony, Carmel Capewell, Meriem Lamara and Emma Whewell. For more information about the winners please see the links above. The Images of Research Catalogue 2015-16 shows all the 2015-16 entries.  Read the rest of this entry

Graduate School workshops – to turn up or not turn up!

mature students photoWe’re coming to the last few months of workshops in the 2015-16 programme and I thought a reminder on the delicate subject of attendance is perhaps overdue!

We have had (like most other universities offering free skills workshops) a problem with researchers booking a place on Eventbrite but then not turning up, or turning up half-way through a workshop. Neither of these scenarios results in a happy workshop facilitator, as they have spent hours preparing and then delivering the material to an expected number of bodies, in a planned time-frame. Please remember that by registering on a workshop you are committing to attend.

Many other Universities charge a booking fee or deposit, but we have chosen not to do this, so if you book a workshop please don’t abuse the system by not turning up.

So, here’s the booking etiquette….. Read the rest of this entry