GW4 BioMed MRC DTP Prep Period Slides 2024-25

Prep Period Slides 2024-25

1. Prep Period GW4 BioMed2 DTP Academic Leads July 2024

2. Compulsory part of the studentship– all students will participate in the Prep period during the first 3 months of their PhD, October to end of December. Students and their supervisors work together to engage with a range of contacts to enable the student to engage and take ownership of their project. The student will refine their project plan based on reading, discussions and visits. It’s a time to make valuable connections before they begin their research. Prep Period in their 1st year

3. Work on the PhD project will start in January 2025 Research time is not reduced as we have extended the PhD to be funded for 4 years, from 3.5 years previously. The Prep period allows time for meetings, visits, training and project planning. Prep Period in their 1st year

4. Meetings HEI inductions – early October within each school/faculty/Doctoral Training Division GW4 BioMed2 DTP Orientation – Held in Cardiff on 16 th and 17 th October 2024. Attended by cohort 2.3 on Day 1 and all DTP students on Day 2. Includes an introduction to the DTP, mentor meetings, requested training. GW4 BioMed2 DTP Social Activity – mid November- December for all years. Students meet with DTP students in all years from their own institution. Organised by the academic institution leads.

5. Minimum of 3 visits during the Prep period Arranged by supervisor and student – start organizing these soon! MUST meet with all co-supervisors listed on the project application MUST visit at least one co-supervisor in their lab/setting to ensure early interaction Could visit a contact from a local cross-cutting theme/group that is important to the project Student could visit a collaborator who uses techniques relevant to the project. Visits

6. Each visit should last between 1 day to 2 weeks. Student are only required to visit one location away from their HEI but can do more if relevant. For some projects it may be useful to have more short visits, e.g. research group meetings locally and/or with their co-supervisor. Visits

7. The Prep period can be used for project-specific training such as obtaining a Home Office Licence or learning a particular analysis method. Consider and plan any future training requirements funded by your RTSG. This could be short courses at another GW4 University or externally provided training. Consider ideas for the 3-month Broadening Horizons placement in year 3. Training

8. Discussion of expectations for student and supervisors. Agree frequency and location of meetings, timelines for written materials and support for techniques. Check that resources are available, consider creating a budget for the project and involving the student in managing it. At the end of the Prep period the student should define the project by writing a project outline for submission to the DTP. Planning

9. 2 pages in total to include Background Research question/hypothesis, aims and objectives Implementation (resources and budget) Expected outcomes Risks and contingency plans to manage them Outline of potential research studies in years 2 and 3, showing where these are contingent on year 1 outcomes. Submit to the DTP by midday on Friday 10 th January 2025. The DTP theme lead for the project area will provide the student with individual feedback and suggestions following submission. Project Outline Submission

10. Student: “The prep period gave me time to read and learn exactly what I wanted to look at during my project, without the pressure of getting straight into the lab to generate data. It's been a while since I've had to do training courses and submit work, so the prep period gave time for smooth transition into the PhD” Student: “I found the prep period a useful time to try to widen my network and find out about the different areas of research and the people that have expertise in my particular research methods.” Supervisor: “The students made full use of the prep period to visit her wider supervisory team and fMRI analysis collaborator at Imperial. This was really helpful for her introduction to the PhD. Supervisor: It's helpful to relieve the pressure to get started trying to generate data, and instead allow time to read and think.” Feedback from previous cohorts

11. Questions? Please ask! There are no silly questions!