QUADRAT

We had a fantastic few days over in Belfast last week, celebrating the commencement of our new DTP PhD students!

The QUADRAT DTP Annual Science Meeting (ASM) and new student induction took place in Belfast from the 9^th to 11^th October 2023. This in-person event brings together all of our PhD students, from new starts to final year students, and gives them the opportunity to practice presenting their science at different stages of their research journey. We also factor in plenty of social and networking time for our students to meet a wide array of academic staff, the QUADRAT Team, and to build new relationships and an academic community that will accompany them through their career.

Here’s what this year’s ASM and Induction looked like:

Monday 09 October 2023

New student welcome event for Cohort 5 students at the Queen’s University Belfast Graduate School on the Queen’s campus; followed by an evening welcome reception at the Ulster Museum with access to exhibitions!

Tuesday 10 October 2023

The Annual Science Meeting (ASM) at Riddel Hall was opened with a heartfelt welcome by Professor Graeme Swindles of Queen’s University Belfast.

• Cohort 2, our final year students gave a 15 minute presentation (12 minute presentation, 3 minutes of questions)
• Cohort 3, our third year students gave a 10 minute presentation (8 minute presentation, 2 minutes of questions)
• Cohort 4, our second year students gave poster presentations

You can find the 2023 event schedule and presenter abstracts here.

We then ran an internships information session followed by students speaking about their internship experiences and the value of this professional opportunity.

The slides are available to view here, and further internships information is available on our website here.

Our student speakers were:

• Anton Kuech – internship with the European Parliament, Committee on Fisheries
• Karendeep Sidhu – internship with The Royal Society of Biology
• Niamh Esmonde – internship with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Next up was prize giving! Due to such a high standard, we added a last minute ‘highly commended’ category! Each of our winners will have a tree planted in their name via The John Muir Trust.

• Cohort 2 presentations
  • Winner: Amy Lally
  • Highly Commended: Karendeep Sidhu

• Cohort 3 presentations
  • Winner: Will Hancock-Evans
  • Highly Commended: Tilly Scott

• Cohort 4 posters
  • Winner: James Dill-Russell
  • Highly Commended: Naomi Rich & Danni Thompson

 

To finish off a great day of science, we invited Professor Jenny McKinley, QUADRAT DTP Deputy Director, to give the closing remarks. We then enjoyed an evening reception at Café Parisien in central Belfast, with spectacular view of City Hall.

 

Wednesday 11 October 2023

The final day of this event is an induction for new students, and a training day for existing cohorts. The training is tailored to the stage each cohort has reached in their PhD journey, this year the programme included:

• Cohort 2: Career Conversations. Speakers included: Brice Rea (academic), Ben Harper (non-academic) & Jennifer McKinley (academic); Getting your best self on paper by The Mindset Method
• Cohort 3: Peer Review, Open Science, Authorship and Journal Selection by Jamie Males, PLOS Climate, PLOS ONE; Policy Engagement by Dr Jamie Gallagher
• Cohort 4: Impact through Engagement by Dr Jamie Gallagher; Engaging Communications by Camilla Long, Bespoke Communications
• Cohort 5: Setting yourself up for success by The Mindset Method; De Bono’s Hats & Working with your Supervisor delivered by the QUB Graduate School team