Postgraduate Research exclusive events

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Being a Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) is about more than producing a thesis. Discover events and activities designed especially for you as a PGR, from developing your skills and building a community, to taking the next steps in your career. You can also find events for all students and events for the whole University community.

The University Doctoral School is here to support and enhance the postgraduate research experience at Birmingham, working with Colleges and teams across the University like Careers Network, Library Services, and Registry, to guide PGRs from induction to graduation.

Postgraduate Research (PGR) programmes include: PhD, PhD with integrated study, MPhil, MMus, MRes, MA by Research, MSc by Research, MLitt, EngD, DDS, MD, Higher doctorates and Professional doctorates.

Organising your research notes: 23rd October 10am - noon; Fourth Floor Training Room, Main Library; For Postgraduate Researchers who have begun gathering sources - develop a more structured approach to managing notes, explore different approaches to organising research notes and practical guidance on developing a clear and searchable system.

Making the most of conferences: 26th October 2pm - 4pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; This workshop introduces practical tips for postgraduate researchers (PGRs) preparing to attend a conference, helping you get the maximum value from your conference, including getting the most out of networking opportunities.

Software Carpentry: MATLAB: 27th October 1pm - 28th October 4pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-part, in-person workshop for researchers with little or no coding experience. Learn to work with variables and arrays in MATLAB, process and visualise data, and write your own functions and programs.

Data management plans for PGRs: 28th October 10am - 11am; Online; All postgraduate researchers are required to have a Data Management Plan in place before completing their first annual review (GRS3). This workshop will help you to achieve this by covering the basics of research data management.

Working effectively with your supervisor: 29th October 10am - noon; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Understand what to expect from the supervisor-PGR relationship, how to get the most from your supervisory team, and the support available to complement your supervision.

Writing clearly and concisely: 30th October 10am - noon; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Sharpen up your writing to communicate your research and ideas more effectively. This will be most useful for those who have already drafted some texts.

Image Processing with Python: 2nd November 9am - 3rd November 5pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-part, in-person workshop for researchers who already know some Python. Learn to load and edit image data, deal with noise, and automatically identify and analyse objects in images using scikit-image.

Structuring your thesis: 2nd November 3pm - 4:30pm; Online; Already have some draft texts but unsure how these might fit together in a logical thesis structure? This highly interactive workshop will cover common thesis structures and strategies for creating your own.

PGR Careers beyond academia: How to research your options: 3rd November 1pm - 2:30pm; Online; In this webinar, PGR Careers Adviser Holly will introduce some useful research strategies and resources that you can use to research career options beyond academia, including places to start, using LinkedIn, and inspiration from other PhDs.

Development Needs Analysis: 3rd November 2pm - 3:30pm; Online; The Development Needs Analysis (GRS1) form is a requirement of research programmes. This highly practical workshop supports the process, including introducing you to Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework.

Getting your thesis ready: 3rd November 2pm - 4pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

Geospatial Python: 4th November 9:30am - 5pm; Murray Learning Centre; A one-day, in-person workshop for researchers who already know some Python. Learn how raster and vector geospatial data differ, then download, analyse and visualise satellite imagery and OpenStreetMap data.

Developing Research Software with AI Tools: 4th November 10am - 5th November 1pm; Murray Learning Centre; Already writing code for your research and wondering how AI tools could make you more productive? Learn to set up Visual Studio Code, use an AI coding assistant to refactor existing code, and find your way around an unfamiliar codebase.

Literature searching: hints and tips for researchers: 4th November 10am - 11:30am; Fourth Floor Training Room, Main Library; Explore practical strategies for finding academic literature. Learn how to make the most of databases, search engines and discovery tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your literature searches.

Unearthing the past: using archives and special collections: 9th November 10am - noon; Cadbury Research Library, Lower Ground Floor, Muirhead Tower; Get an introduction to archives and a practical guide to special collections departments. Explore how archives and special collections can be best used for your research. Go behind the scenes at the Cadbury Research Library.

Introduction to presentation skills: 9th November 2pm - 4pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Are you a postgraduate researcher who wants to build your confidence in delivering presentations? This workshop covers the basics of a good presentation, including structure and visual aids. Get peer feedback on an informal presentation of your own.

Coding with AI: Opportunities and Responsibilities for Researchers: 10th November 10am - 12th November 1pm; Online; A two-part, online workshop for researchers with little or no coding experience. Learn to use AI tools to write, explain and correct Python code, and how to judge AI-generated code on quality, ethics and security.

What is Citation Justice?: 10th November noon - 1pm; Online; Explore the role of influence and power in who we cite, how bias in this area can occur and be addressed, and discover tools for finding literature that is more representative of the global majority.

Introduction to Web Scraping: 10th November 1pm - 4pm; Murray Learning Centre; A practical, in-person workshop for researchers who want to gather data from the web. Learn how a webpage is structured, use the WebScraper extension to pull data out of one, and weigh up the legal and ethical implications.

Preparing for your viva: 10th November 4pm - 5pm; Online; The viva is an important part of the assessment for your programme. Attend this workshop in the months approaching your viva to do some practical activities to help you prepare.

Open Research tools: 11th November noon - 12:30pm; Online; Learn how small steps can help foster a more open research culture. This 30-minute online microsession introduces key concepts, support at the University of Birmingham, and practical tools including ORCID, PURE and UBIRA.

Introduction to Linux: 11th November 1pm - 4pm; Murray Learning Centre; A gentle, hands-on introduction to the Linux command line for researchers. Learn to log in to remote systems, create and move files around, manage file permissions and edit files — the groundwork for using BlueBEAR.

Making the most of conferences: 11th November 3:30pm - 5pm; Online; This workshop introduces practical tips for postgraduate researchers (PGRs) preparing to attend a conference, helping you get the maximum value from your conference, including getting the most out of networking opportunities.

Reviewing the literature: 12th November 9am - 10:30am; Online; Understand the nature of a quality literature review and how to effectively synthesise the literature you have read in your thesis.

Planning for success: 12th November 10am - noon; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Designed primarily for postgraduate researchers (PGRs) in the very early stages of their research programme (approximately during the first three months), this workshop covers research project management techniques.

An introduction to EndNote Desktop: 12th November 3pm - 3:30pm; Online; New to EndNote Desktop? Join this practical 30-minute online session to learn how to organise references, import records from databases, manage PDFs, remove duplicates, and cite in Microsoft Word.

Shut Up and Work for early career researchers: 13th November 9:30am - 4:30pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room; Work on your own writing, planning or literature discovery in a quiet but supportive environment. There will be time to set targets at the beginning of the day and there will be regular planned breaks to enable you to network or take a walk.

Profiling and Optimisation in R: 16th November 1pm - 18th November 4pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-part, in-person workshop for researchers who already use R. Learn to profile your code to find the real bottlenecks, benchmark alternatives, and apply optimisation techniques that speed things up without changing the result.

Introduction to BlueBEAR: 17th November 10am - 1pm; Murray Learning Centre; A half-day, in-person workshop for researchers who want to run jobs on BlueBEAR. Get an overview of the University HPC service, with hands-on time writing scripts, submitting and managing jobs.

Making job applications beyond academia: CV & cover letter tips for PGRs: 17th November 11am - 12:30pm; Online; Learn more about the key differences between academic and non-academic CVs / applications and how to write CVs, cover letter and 'supporting statements' for jobs in sectors other than academia in this interactive webinar.

Literature searching for a Systematic Review: 19th November 10am - 11:30am; Fourth Floor Training Room, Main Library; Take a systematic approach to your literature searching. This workshop covers search strategy development, database selection, search techniques and result management for Systematic Reviews and related studies.

NVIDIA Fundamentals of Accelerated Computing with Modern CUDA C++: 23rd November 9:30am - 24th November 4:30pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-day, in-person GPU programming workshop with NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute. Learn to write, compile and run CUDA C++ on the GPU, optimise memory transfer, and add acceleration to existing CPU code.

Tips for discoverability and impact: 23rd November noon - 12:30pm; Online; Discover tools and resources to maximise the discoverability and impact of your research. Learn about publication and post-publication options, and ways to engage wider audiences with your work.

Increasing your productivity: 23rd November 3:30pm - 5pm; Online; As postgraduate researchers (PGRs), we cannot change the number of hours in a day, but we can use them as effectively as possible. This workshop encourages you to understand your own working preferences to be as productive as possible.

Starting to write for PGRs: 24th November 2pm - 3:30pm; Online; An introduction to the writing process, strategies for planning and creating text, and the role of GenAI in writing for research, suitable for those at the beginning of their development as postgraduate research level academic writers.

Designing and presenting your poster at conferences: 25th November 11am - 1pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Learn how to maximise the opportunity to communicate your research in a highly visual way using a poster. Understand the nature of a poster session, how to create visual impact, and how to use PowerPoint in this context.

Tools for finding a journal for your paper: 25th November noon - 12:30pm; Online; Unsure where to publish? Discover tools and resources to identify suitable journals, compare publishing routes, evaluate journal quality, explore open access options, and recognise warning signs of problematic journals.

Building Better Research Software I: Reproducibility and Scalability: 25th November 1pm - 26th November 4:30pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-part, in-person workshop for researchers who write Python. Learn what open and reproducible research means for your software, and apply professional workflows for version control, environments and collaboration.

Researcher visibility essentials: ORCID and Pure: 26th November 10am - 11am; Online; Learn how to create an ORCID profile for yourself that is recognised in academia and grows in value as your career progresses. Link it to your University of Birmingham Research Portal webpage to increase your discoverability.

Writing clearly and concisely: 27th November 11am - 12:30pm; Online; Sharpen up your writing to communicate your research and ideas more effectively. This will be most useful for those who have already drafted some texts.

Software Carpentry: R: 30th November 1pm - 1st December 4pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-part, in-person workshop for researchers with little or no coding experience. Learn to install R and RStudio, work with variables, vectors and data frames, then read and explore data and make plots.

Working effectively with your supervisor: 30th November 2pm - 3:30pm; Online; Understand what to expect from the supervisor-PGR relationship, how to get the most from your supervisory team, and the support available to complement your supervision.

Advanced BlueBEAR: 1st December 10am - 1pm; Murray Learning Centre; A follow-on, in-person workshop for researchers already using BlueBEAR. Go further with Slurm and array jobs, local storage, Apptainer containers, self-installation and interactive jobs.

Structuring your thesis: 1st December 10am - noon; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Already have some draft texts but unsure how these might fit together in a logical thesis structure? This highly interactive workshop will cover common thesis structures and strategies for creating your own.

Introduction to AI tools for researchers: 2nd December 11am - noon; Online; Develop an understanding of the opportunities and risks of using AI tools in the research process, explore how AI Tools might be used to augment research processes to create efficiencies, and critically evaluate potential ethical risks.

Profiling and Optimisation in R: 2nd December 1pm - 3rd December 1pm; Online; A two-part, online workshop for researchers who already use R. Learn to profile your code to find the real bottlenecks, benchmark alternatives, and apply optimisation techniques that speed things up without changing the result.

Web Scraping with Python: 2nd December 1pm - 4pm; Murray Learning Centre; A hands-on, in-person workshop for researchers who already know some Python. You will learn how to use various Python packages to retrieve the HTML of webpages and to extract specific content from both static and dynamic webpages.

Literature searching: hints and tips for researchers: 3rd December 2pm - 3:30pm; Online; Explore practical strategies for finding academic literature. Learn how to make the most of databases, search engines and discovery tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your literature searches.

Reviewing the literature: 4th December 10am - noon; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; Understand the nature of a quality literature review and how to effectively synthesise the literature you have read in your thesis.

Introduction to presentation skills: 4th December 1pm - 2:30pm; Online; Are you a postgraduate researcher who wants to build your confidence in delivering presentations? This workshop covers the basics of a good presentation, including structure and visual aids. Get peer feedback on an informal presentation of your own.

Planning for success: 7th December 2pm - 3:30pm; Online; Designed primarily for postgraduate researchers (PGRs) in the very early stages of their research programme (approximately during the first three months), this workshop covers research project management techniques.

Reading and note-making: 8th December 10am - 11:30am; Online; A huge quantity of reading is required for postgraduate research. This workshop helps you develop strategies to read effectively and efficiently, extracting the key information into your notes. Bring your own reading material to practise with!

Software Carpentry: Git: 8th December 10am - 1pm; Murray Learning Centre; A hands-on, in-person workshop for researchers new to version control. Learn the basics of Git, create a repository, track and review changes to your code, and pick up good practice for collaborating.

An introduction to EndNote Desktop: 9th December 11am - 11:30am; Online; New to EndNote Desktop? Join this practical 30-minute online session to learn how to organise references, import records from databases, manage PDFs, remove duplicates, and cite in Microsoft Word.

Building Better Research Software II: Testing, Documenting & Collaborating: 9th December 1pm - 10th December 4:30pm; Murray Learning Centre; A two-part, in-person workshop for researchers who write Python. Learn to test and document your code, and pick up tools and practices that make research software reusable and easier to collaborate on.

Preparing for your viva: 10th December 10am - 11am; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room 1; The viva is an important part of the assessment for your programme. Attend this workshop in the months approaching your viva to do some practical activities to help you prepare.

Shut Up and Work for early career researchers: 11th December 9:30am - 4:30pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room; Work on your own writing, planning or literature discovery in a quiet but supportive environment. There will be time to set targets at the beginning of the day and there will be regular planned breaks to enable you to network or take a walk.

Getting your thesis ready: 13th January 10am - noon; Online; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

Preparing for your viva: 15th January 11am - noon; Online; The viva is an important part of the assessment for your programme. Attend this workshop in the months approaching your viva to do some practical activities to help you prepare.

Unearthing the past: using archives and special collections: 22nd February 2pm - 4pm; Cadbury Research Library, Lower Ground Floor, Muirhead Tower; Get an introduction to archives and a practical guide to special collections departments. Explore how archives and special collections can be best used for your research. Go behind the scenes at the Cadbury Research Library.

Getting your thesis ready: 10th March 2pm - 4pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

Getting your thesis ready: 17th May 10am - noon; Online; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

Getting your thesis ready: 24th June 2pm - 4pm; Main Library Fourth Floor Training Room; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

Getting your thesis ready: 27th July 2pm - 4pm; Online; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

Getting your thesis ready: 25th August 2pm - 4pm; Online; For postgraduate researchers (PGRs) approaching the final stages of preparing their thesis (4-6 months from submission), this workshop covers thesis presentation, the submission process and copyright considerations.

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