In our update this week:
- PGR Essentials events
- Meeting my Role Models: An Insight into Imposter Syndrome by Shruti Mandhani
- Rearrangement of Wellbeing Session scheduled for 23 November
- Supervisors: a reminder of upcoming sessions on 25 and 29 November
- Mathematic Biology Cluster Relaunching
- Call for Applications for Grants for PhD students in Social Sciences
- Writefest 2021
PGR Essentials events
As part of ongoing training and development for PGR students, the Doctoral School and Research Institutes are running events for students in year 2 onwards. The central Doctoral School session will be a reminder of where to access key information and university-level support for your studies, as well as a chance to reconnect with the broader doctoral community and meet the Doctoral School Director.
The follow-on Research Institute sessions will focus on completion planning and project management. You will be invited to the latter via your Research Institute but the dates for your diary are:
- Doctoral School – 7 December | 1000-1130 online via Zoom – book your place here
- HRI – 13 December | 1000-1100 online via Zoom
- IIRI – 14 December | 1430-1600 on campus and via Zoom (hybrid)
- SERI – 16 December | afternoon (timings TBC)
- CCRI – 28 January 2022 – on campus (Harmer 2418) then repeated on 2 February 2022– online via Zoom
Meeting my Role Models: An Insight into Imposter Syndrome by Shruti Mandhani
In 2019 Shruti Mandhani, a PhD student in MERI, won the national 3 Minute Thesis Competition with a compelling insight into her work on using a ‘nature-inspired’ approach to designing novel Auxetic materials. She has now used her prize money to make this important, thoughtful and brave film about speaking to her role models in academia and learning more about her imposter syndrome. You can view both via YouTube.
Shruti Mandhani, Sheffield Hallam University – YouTube
Meeting my Role Models: An Insight into Imposter Syndrome
Rearrangement of Wellbeing Session scheduled for 23 November
The Wellbeing session planned for 23 November has now had to be postponed, but a new date has been arranged for 10 January 2022 and we have now opened bookings for the new date via the booking link.
The session will begin with a combined session summarising what the Wellbeing Group has been doing over the last few months and signposting to where support can be found, and will then break into separate discussion groups for PGR students and supervisors exploring themes to identify the areas which affect wellbeing.
This session will be a hybrid session – on campus and via Zoom.
Supervisors: a reminder of upcoming sessions on 25 and 29 November
Current research supervisors can join the Research Supervisor Network Team and view upcoming events on the Team site and on the Researcher Development SharePoint site. These include monthly Supervisor Passport drop-ins (the next one is on 25 November) and regular events around specific themes including a Supervisor Wellbeing session on 29 November.
Mathematic Biology Cluster Relaunching
The mathematical biology cluster group is relaunching and is looking to recruit new members.
The mathematical biology cluster group aims to bring together mathematicians, physicists, engineers and people working in biological sciences to both enhance current research and identify new potential research areas.
If you are working on an area of research in biology that you think may benefit from the input of a mathematical model or are a mathematician interested in modelling biological phenomena then please sign up here to the mathematical biology cluster group. The group will have monthly meetings where we will present mathematical models in biology or biology research that may benefit from mathematical models.
If you are interested, please fill in this form (https://forms.office.com/r/Ur6beVNqAr) . If you have previously signed up, please could you do so again so that the group has your up to date details.
For more information, please contact Angharad Ugonna at a.ugonna@shu.ac.uk.
Call for Applications for Grants for PhD students in Social Sciences
The Annette Lawson Charitable Trust is offering small grants to help assist PhD students in the social sciences.
The AL Charitable Trust is a 30-year-old educational foundation promoting gender research. This year a limited number of grants of up to £1,000 are available for doctoral students working on projects relating to the theme of Success Stories: Women and Health.
In particular, the Trust invites applications for small grants:
- To enable research in the pursuit of a PhD project
- To help fund travel, interviewing, or media connected with PhD research
- To contribute towards writing-up costs for a PhD dissertation
Please note: The deadline for applications is 1700 (UK time) on Friday 7 January 2022. Completed application forms and one reference must be sent by email to the AL Trust at info@alcharitabletrust.org.uk. The application form can be found on the Doctoral School blog.
Writefest 2021
November is traditionally Academic Writing Month (#AcWriFest21) and we are running events at SHU which link to this. Keep an eye on the programme of events for Writefest 2021 on our blog and get involved during the month.