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Research Culture

Postgraduate researchers are an integral part of the Faculty's research culture. We believe a thriving research community encompasses action and values that can enrich the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ experience at all career levels, affecting the ways researchers conduct their work and how they communicate the results to wider publics. A sense of community and belonging can help PGRs to not only build their professional networks, but to support wellbeing and counteract feelings of isolation.

Within the Faculty we are working towards strengthening our PGR research culture, particularly after the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to embrace the multidisciplinary nature of a larger Faculty. As a first step we created a new annual 6-month post – MAH Senior PGR Events Officer, who is a postgraduate researcher coming to the end of their studies, and will be able to build and connect our postgraduate research community. Manuel Salazar was our first Events Officer and passed the baton on to Nick Greenwood the following academic year, who passed it on to Joe Ironside, and then Charlotte Fraser.

Our aims to improve the research culture for postgraduate researchers are:

• to build a sense of connection between PGRs
• strengthen department-level conversations
• create opportunities for researchers to meet with peers and faculty
• support the development of research and teaching skills
• to prepare postgraduate researchers for academic and professional life, whilst also enhancing researcher confidence and celebrating successes.

Our focus is on encouragement and support through the organisation of research and social events, with opportunities for exchange and interaction. To achieve this, we are planning a vibrant term calendar of community-strengthening initiatives aimed at exchanging research in progress, discussing community-wide issues, promoting the benefits of peer support, and offering career guidance.

 In the calendar, there are:

• induction events, with opportunities for newcomers to socialise and exchange initial research ideas
• research in progress seminars to help researchers hone presentation skills in supportive and peer-centred environments
• reading groups to stimulate academic discussion
• peer-support online group meetings for new students
• craft and chat wellbeing events and other social opportunities to socialise such as the weekly coffee mornings and get-togethers
• In May, the MAH Postgraduate Researcher Conference stimulates the exchange of research results with presentations from PGRs from third years and up, giving a Faculty-wide picture of the range of topics researched across the Faculty.

Finally, we encourage PGRs to create networks and organise researcher-led initiatives by offering opportunities to fund workshops, panels, keynotes, conferences, colloquia, get-togethers, which have total support for logistics and marketing from the MAH Senior PGR Events Officer (find contact details here).