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Training and professional development
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Academic Career Development Lead
Training and development of our outstanding translational scientists, clinicians, nurses and other professionals allied to medicine is an over-arching priority for the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre. Through our training offer, we equip our workforce with tools to develop their careers and design and execute clinical trials and discovery science.
Our training approach focuses on the importance of common biological inflammatory processes rather than disease-specific pathways, and also includes leadership, entrepreneurial and transferable skills. We deliver our training and development in partnership with local infrastructure in Birmingham to provide an outstanding research-training environment spanning academic, clinical and translational disciplines.
Training resources
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NIHR training opportunities
NIHR provide a vast amount of training and development resources for researchers at all stages of their career. Please see their website for further information about the following:
- NIHR Academy
- Leadership development resources and mentoring opportunities: as part of the NIHR Leaders Support and Development Programme, the NIHR run virtual workshops on various topics around leadership. Please view our events page for more details.
- NIHR Fellowship and Clinical Academic Programmes
- NIHR PI Oversight Masterclass – aims to provide practical solutions to empower PIs to enhance effective oversight of their studies
The Clinical Academic Training and Careers Hub (CATCH) also provides information and advice to support your career development.
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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is an important part of our work at the Birmingham BRC, and training opportunities are available via both the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. The NIHR also provides useful resources.
Via the University of Birmingham’s intranet (login required), information and resources are available covering
- Staff Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (including key issues, policies and staff EDI networks)
- EDI Initiatives & Resources for Staff
- Equality and diversity training
- MDS Sustain: A new year-long leadership development programme aimed at academic staff who have recently started their own research group, particularly people who belong to groups currently underrepresented at senior levels.
Via UHB Moodle, (login required) training courses cover:
Communicating in the Workplace
- Banter in the Workplace
- Handling Difficult Conversation
- Dealing with Sensitive Issues
- Inclusive Language and Communication
- Understanding Race Bias
- Cultural Awareness
- Tackling Race Bias at work (Manager’s Guide)
- Disability Confident Course
- Disability Etiquette
- Disabled Adventure in Customer Service
- Disabled Adventure in Work and Recruitment
- Understanding Gender Bias
- Tackling Gender Bias
- Understanding and Tackling Gender Bias
- Gender Matters
- Managing Maternity and Paternity at Work
- Inclusion and Diversity
- Inclusion in Action
- Impact of Micro Behaviours
- Effective Bystander
- Understanding Unconscious Bias
- Creating an Environment Based on Respect
- Understanding Equality Impact Assessments
- Inclusive Leadership
- Working in the Equality Act
- Diversity Challenges
- Managing Stress
- Mental Health in the Workplace Overview
- Mental Health Doing the Right Thing
- Mental Health Stress Less
- Tackling sexual Harassment for Managers
- Understand and Confront Sexual Harassment at Work
Sexual Orientation Transgender
- Trans Friendly Workplace for Managers
- Trans Awareness
The NIHR Research Design Service has developed an Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit. This resource aims to support researchers to better understand how to embed EDI in research design and to meet the NIHR’s EDI requirements. You can learn more about the NIHR EDI Toolkit, and access practical guidance, tips and resources on how to embed EDI at all stages of your research, by watching this webinar.
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Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) training
Our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Manager, Laura Chapman, works closely with PPIE Leads from across the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust to offer bespoke, face to face and online training sessions for both members of the public and researchers wanting to develop their knowledge of public and patient involvement.
The Birmingham BRC places a high priority on PPIE training, and are keen to ensure all BRC members have access to and attend an “Introduction to PPI” workshop within 12 months of joining the Centre.
To find out more about upcoming workshops and to book a place, visit our events page.
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Birmingham Health Partners education and training
A number of education and training resources are available through Birmingham Health Partners; a strategic alliance between the University of Birmingham, the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, and two NHS Foundation Trusts – Birmingham Women’s & Children’s, and University Hospitals Birmingham.
Courses, Fellowships and Programmes include:
- Internship programme – An introduction to research leading to pre-doctoral or MRes study or further career development
- Clinical Academic Research Partnerships – A post-doctoral fellowship for clinically qualified staff who currently do not have research time allocated in their job plans
- BHP starter fellowships – Year-long launch pad for clinicians interested in a translational research career
- New Consultant Scheme – Post-doctoral fellowship for consultant-level medical staff who are less than 18 months in-post and do not already have allocated research time
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Mentoring and additional on-demand training opportunities
Mentoring is available for Academy members (NIHR Trainees) through the Academy of Medical Sciences-NIHR pairing scheme.
The University of Birmingham’s new Researcher Training and Development webpage highlights training around the grant support available across the university and includes access to recordings of previous grants training sessions.
Please see below further on-demand training opportunities:
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks: Grant Writing Workshop Materials are now available for this workshop on grant writing that took place on 4 August 2021. The slides can be found through the UoB intranet(login required).
- ‘Healthy Ageing: Concepts, Interventions and Preparing for the Future’ MOOC Available via FutureLearn, this massive open online course (MOOC) was developed by colleagues based at the University of Birmingham (including members of the BRC) in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The MOOC will run three times a year, is free to access and is open to anyone from family members/carers to practitioners, researchers and policy makers.
- ATTC Advanced Therapies E-Learning The UK’s Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (ATTC) network has developed a course of E-Learning modules, addressing learning needs of staff implementing Advanced Therapies into clinical practice.
- Become a Better Presenter: Improve Your Public Speaking Skills This free course run via FutureLearn by the Presenter Network is designed to help everyone find their own unique groove when it comes to presenting and public speaking – no matter what their level of experience is.
- Talking Science YouTube Course Experienced science communicator and presenter, Greg Foot, has launched a free online training course on YouTube that covers core content on the importance of engagement, audience targeting, how to use storytelling, creating demos and how to use video.
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Supporting healthier communities: Birmingham City Council resources
Birmingham City Council have created a number of resources to support healthier communities in the following areas:
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IP and Commercialisation training
Our Intellectual Property (IP) and Commercialisation Training Programme is tailored specifically for Health, Medicine, Life Sciences and Engineering researchers and developed in partnership with the University of Birmingham Enterprise and Library Services.
This free, comprehensive programme will equip you with the knowledge and skills to maximise the impact of your research through effective intellectual property management and commercialisation strategies.
