Professional development

We offer research staff a range of professional and career development opportunities to help them build skills and confidence, and navigate different career stages

Professional development workshops

We run workshops for research staff on topics including:

  • academic mentoring
  • generative AI and research practice
  • public engagement
  • presentation skills
  • leadership
  • publishing and peer review
  • project management 

We run a number of career themed workshops, further information can be found on our Careers Support pages. 

In addition, we run series of workshops grouped together under a theme, for example:

These workshops explore futures thinking as a creative and strategic tool for shaping research, career direction and academic practice. They use futures methods to support insight, vision creation, creativity, agency and strategic thinking.

Workshops in this series include:

  • reclaiming energy and purpose in research
  • Orienting amid uncertainty
  • vision creation for project leads
  • The situation room: scenarios for successful projects

These workshops help researchers develop the skills, confidence and tools to lead and sustain effective collaborations.

Workshops in this series include:

  • building effective research collaborations
  • managing complex collaborations
  • resetting and recovering collaborations
  • ending well and sustaining momentum

For full workshop descriptions, dates, times and direct booking links, visit the workshops and events page. You can search by keyword, date and tags to find relevant opportunities.

Eligibility, booking and cancelling

These workshops are open to research staff, including:

postdoctoral researchers
research fellows
research assistants
research associates
technicians


Eligibility for careers workshops is listed on the Careers workshops page.


Workshops open for booking at the start of the academic year. To find out more about any of the Researcher Development workshops, including workshop descriptions, dates, times and booking links, visit the workshops and events page.

Workshops and events

Workshops can also be booked through People and Money.


If you need to cancel your booking, please do so at your earliest opportunity and at least 3 days before the event. Someone else may be able to take your place, but we need time to contact them. Also, although you are not charged for an event, there are costs we incur which relate directly to places reserved.

How to cancel
  • Log in to People & Money [Ease login required]
  • From your People & Money home page, click on Me, then on the Learning tile to open the Learning App.
  • Click on Current Learning
  • Click on the name of the workshop booking you wish to cancel
  • In the Actions menu (top right corner) select Withdraw, complete the Reason to Withdraw questions, and click Submit.

10 days professional development

The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers states that researchers should have access to opportunities, support, encouragement and time to complete at least 10 days of professional development each year, pro rata.

You can find examples of professional development activities, and information on how to record them in People and Money, on the Research Staff Hub.

Please Note 

  • If you are a University of Edinburgh staff member making fellowship applications contact the Edinburgh Research Office for further support

    Edinburgh Research Office

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