PGR events
Learn more about the events offered for doctoral candidates.
The Doctoral School runs both community and development events throughout the academic year, which are open to all PGR. These events are separate from those run by your academic School and, while not mandatory, are an important part of your doctoral experience.
Doctoral community events are a chance to engage in meaningful research sharing and to meet candidates working in other fields and expand your understanding, as well as providing a much-needed social space away from your research. After all, no one understands the trials and tribulations of doctoral study like other doctoral candidates.
The PGR Calendar
The PGR Calendar includes all the training, networking, and social events available to doctoral candidates. In addition to the DETD programme and the community events organised by the Doctoral School, we also add events shared by others across the University that are open to PGR (eg. academic schools, NTU library, research groups).
It’s also a space for PGR to share events they are a part of that they’d like the community to be a part of.
As the PGR Calendar is for all candidates, we don’t include school or department specific events. However, if an event is open to candidates from all eight Schools then we will advertise it here.
If you are a doctoral candidate running a community or research event (such as a conference, roundtable or networking event) that you’d like to share with the rest of the community, or if you'd like to run or suggest an event, please contact Lauren Nixon, Doctoral School Communications and Administration Executive.
Doctoral School Events
Every term we publish a schedule of community events that are added to the PGR Calendar. Any new or additional events added during a term will always be added to the calendar at least a month in advance.
If an event requires registration, the link will be included in the event listing – if it’s hosted by the Doctoral School, this will be via the PGR Dashboard.
Works In Progress
Works in Progress is a research sharing event that allows candidates from across NTU to share their work in a variety of formats. Whether you want to workshop part of a thesis chapter, practice a conference paper, share your research findings or work through a particularly frustrating issue with your methodology, W.I.P is a space to share.
For both the speakers and the audience, W.I.P is a great opportunity to develop your skills as a researcher, stay up to date with the latest developments in our research community and make connections with other PGR.
Works in Progress takes place once a month during term time, and each session includes two to three candidates each allowed 20 minutes to present their work. Each speaker is allotted time for questions, and we close the session with an open group discussion.
Tea, coffee, and cake or biscuits are always on offer too!
You can register to speak at a future Works In Progress using this form.
PGR Study Club
PGR Study Club is a monthly quiet, group space for doctoral research. You are welcome to bring your reading, work on your latest chapter, your data analysis, your research admin or any other task you need to focus on! Study Club is open to all PGR as a welcoming, supportive space for focused working: we begin the session with introductions and sharing our goals for the afternoon, and then take regular breaks every 50 - 60 minutes to maintain focus levels, rest our eyes and share our progress. You're welcome to join the session at any time during the afternoon, just come in and take seat if people are working.
Doctoral Socials
Doctoral Socials are hosted at the end of every term by the Doctoral School as a way to celebrate and provide a space for candidates to take a break from their research.
In the past, we’ve done festive crafting, quiz afternoons, and cake decorating (our take on Bake Your Thesis): activities are always accompanied by snacks and we’re open to suggestions for future socials.
NTU Doctoral Research Conference
The NTU Doctoral Research Festival is an annual celebration of the dynamic and diverse research being undertaken by doctoral researchers from all eight academic Schools. Candidates are invited to present their research in a variety of formats, from traditional 20 minute academic papers and academic posters to 10 minute lightning talks and visual displays.
The PGR Event Fund
The PGR Research Event Fund is a prize run by the NTU Doctoral School. It offers four awards of £500 each to teams of PGR to enable them to host research based events that foster and facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, engagement and PGR development.
The fund can be used towards the cost of a speaker, a venue, catering, materials, travel bursaries etc. Previous events have included a variety of different research focused events. These have included:
- a conference connecting industry professionals with academics
- a residential writing retreat
- a workshop on co-production research
- a symposium that blended academic papers with creative methods to encourage knowledge exchange.
The deadline for applications to the 2024/25 Fund is Tuesday 7 January 2025. Applications should be submitted to via this form, and we advise all applicants to review the Fund Handbook before submitting their proposal.