Assisted development

There’s more to being a great researcher than doing great research. With growing competition for funding, increasing globalisation impacting the research world and thousands of voices vying for the spotlight, researchers need to be building their profile and networks more than ever. 

Helping researchers to broaden their skills and adapt is Associate Professor Julia Connell in the Graduate Research School (GRS). In her position as Director, Researcher Development and Training, Connell supports researchers at UTS from research students and their supervisors through to early career and mid-career level researchers. 

“What is most rewarding is the feeling you get when you see researchers getting something out of the training,” says Connell. “For example, when you see an early career researcher attend media training, which encourages them to write something for The Conversation and their article is well-received, we can see the support we’re providing is helping them spread their research and their message.”

The role was created in 2013 to support the UTS Research Strategy, and since taking it on, Connell has made a number of changes to the researcher development programs on offer at UTS. This has included structuring workshops according to the doctoral study framework and offering a number of higher degree research (HDR) and early career researcher (ECR) workshops in block format which has improved attendance and generated positive feedback from participants.

She has also introduced general writing groups and new mentoring schemes connecting HDR students with early career researchers, to meet broader researcher development needs. 

Connell is excited by further initiatives GRS is rolling out later this year, with the support of a newly appointed Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Marie Manidis. Manidis will develop a program to support and orientate new international research students and develop best-practice language programs for them. GRS hopes to pilot this program in second semester 2014 and offer the first fully-fledged program in 2015. 

GRS will also expand the Resilience of Women Research Students (RoWRS) program currently being offered as a pilot within the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. The program helps women research students develop and strengthen resilience skills to assist them complete their PhD and throughout their academic career. It will be rolled out as a general program across all faculties later in 2014.

“UTS provides a great deal of support for researchers in terms of development,” says Connell, pointing out researcher development opportunities are offered through the library, Research and Innovation Office, Marketing and Communication Unit, Institute for Interactive Media and Learning, faculties, institutes and research centres as well as GRS. 

“We offer a diverse range of workshops and are getting good feedback, so I encourage researchers to come along and check them out.  

“Equally, if you have something to offer the UTS research community – a story to share, a desire to be a facilitator – please get in touch.” 

For more information, contact Julia.Connell@uts.edu.au