We carefully curate and tailor our courses and workshops to match the unique requirements and backgrounds of each specific cohort. Our expert-guided approach ensures every training experience is bespoke, relevant and practical, designed for lasting impact and successful career trajectories.
Researcher Training & Development Programmes
Interactive workshops and tailored programmes to boost researchers’ professional skills and career growth
The 'SWITCH' series
FULL SWITCH™
Research Consultancy Training Programme for Researchers
FULL SWITCH™ is a hands-on consultancy training programme designed for PhD students, postdocs, and early career researchers. It gives participants the practical tools, experience, and mindset they need to work effectively with industry, public sector, and non-academic partners. Researchers take on real consultancy briefs, helping them develop the skills that drive knowledge exchange, boost impact, and enhance engagement beyond academia
- Combines academic expertise with best practice consultancy and project management to address real-world business problems
- 6-month research consultancy programme – 100% online – up to 7hours/week
- Flexible – researchers can fit the programme around commitments
- Interactive training, targeted coaching and feedback, interdisciplinary teamwork, practical experience, client engagement, progress meetings and online collaboration tools
- Digital badge upon completion
SHORT SWITCH™
Industry Engagement Training for Researchers
SHORT SWITCH™ is a practical training programme that introduces researchers to the core skills needed for effective industry engagement. Participants explore project management, consultancy, knowledge exchange, and careers beyond academia through engaging and accessible sessions. Alongside group-based learning, the programme includes one-to-one mentoring to support researchers in applying ideas to their own context and goals.
- Online
- 4 workshops
- 1-month, 2-week or 1-week course
- Expert facilitators and guest speakers
- 1-2-1 coaching sessions
QUICK SWITCH™
One Day Industry Engagement Training for Researchers
QUICK SWITCH™ is an intensive one day training workshop that introduces researchers to the core skills required for effective industry engagement. Covering project management, research consultancy, knowledge exchange, and careers beyond academia, it offers the same essential insights as SHORT SWITCH™ in a faster format. It gives PhD students and early career researchers an accessible starting point to build awareness and begin developing the mindset needed for external collaboration.
- Online or in-person
- 4 sessions
- 1-day or 2×0.5 days
- Expert facilitators and guest speakers
Other courses
GENERATIVE AI FOR RESEARCHERS
Using GenAI with confidence, competence and conscience
A programme designed to help researchers integrate generative AI into their work and career development responsibly. Through interactive workshops, participants learn how to get started with GenAI, prompt effectively, assess outputs critically, and apply ethical principles in their research. The series also explores how GenAI can support professional growth, from drafting applications to exploring new career pathways.
- Online
- 4 workshops
- Expert facilitators and guest speakers
- 1-month, 2-week or 1-week course
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE LIVE LAB
Knowledge Exchange Live Lab
A hands-on, facilitated session where researchers and industry partners co-design a project plan for a real challenge. The Live Lab models the planning stages of Knowledge Exchange, turning broad ideas into structured, achievable projects with clear goals, partners and impact pathways.
- In-person
- Expert facilitators and industry partners
- 1-day course
CONSULTANCY CHALLENGE
Turning expertise into practical solutions
A month-long, multidisciplinary consultancy project where researchers work in teams to address a real brief from an external business partner. Guided by mentors, participants apply their research skills, manage client relationships and deliver practical, evidence-based insights and recommendations. The challenge develops confidence in translating academic expertise into professional consultancy and impact in just a few focused weeks.
- Online or hybrid
- Expert facilitators, mentors and guest speakers
- Individualised feedback
- 1 month course
THE BRAINS BEHIND THE BUSINESS
Research-led Business Accelerator
This one-month programme helps researchers explore how ideas and expertise can be developed into viable ventures that deliver real-world impact. Participants learn how to identify opportunities for innovation, evaluate market potential and build a compelling business case demonstrating value and feasibility.
- Online or hybrid
- Expert facilitators, mentors and guest speakers
- Individualised feedback
- 1 month course
INNOVATION IGNITER
Your research-to-impact launchpad
In this 1-day session, participants learn to identify where their research has potential for application, generate viable business ideas, and plan practical routes to implementation. Using design-thinking and entrepreneurial frameworks, the session builds confidence in defining, testing, and communicating research-based ideas for funding, collaboration, or wider use.
- Online or in-person
- Expert facilitators and guest speakers
- 1-day or 2×0.5 days
Workshops
Consultancy in Research Contexts
Consultancy is a highly practical way to apply academic expertise to real-world challenges. This session explains what consultancy means for researchers, how it differs from collaborations and placements and when it can be an effective route for KE. Researchers examine how consultancy projects operate in practice and what makes them successful from both academic and industry perspectives.
Delivering Effective Consultancy Projects
This session focuses on delivering these short, applied projects smoothly from start to finish. Researchers learn how to clarify the brief, set realistic expectations and communicate progress with confidence. The session also explores how to balance academic thinking with practical delivery so that results are both rigorous and relevant to the partner’s needs.
From PhD to Consultant: Exploring New Career Paths
Thinking about consultancy but not sure what it really involves? This session introduces consultancy as a career option beyond academia. You’ll learn what consultants do, how researchers are already working in this space, and the different types of consultancy paths that exist. We’ll help you understand how your skills might fit and whether this direction could be right for you.
How to Start Freelancing as a Consultant
Turn your academic skills into services that clients will pay for. This practical session helps you identify what you can offer, communicate your value clearly, and find your first freelance opportunities. Whether you’re exploring consultancy alongside research or planning your next career step, you’ll leave with clear actions to start freelancing with confidence.
Understanding Knowledge Exchange
Knowledge Exchange (KE) connects research with people, ideas and organisations beyond academia. This session introduces KE as a mindset and practice, helping researchers understand its purpose, principles and relevance to their own work. Participants reflect on what effective exchange looks like and how it contributes to impact and collaboration in a research context.
Instigating Research Collaborations
This session helps researchers take their first steps toward collaboration. Participants learn how to identify suitable industry partners, explore alignment between academic and commercial interests and approach potential collaborators with clarity and purpose.
Maximising Research Collaborations
Once a collaboration is underway, the focus shifts from making connections to making progress. This session helps researchers manage the practical and relational aspects of working with industry partners over time. It explores how to keep projects on track, manage expectations, and ensure that both sides continue to benefit as the work evolves.
Making the Most of Industry Placements
Industry placements let researchers experience professional life from the inside. This session focuses on how to adapt to a new environment, contribute effectively within a team, and communicate confidently with non-academic colleagues. Participants learn how to approach placements with purpose, professionalism, and curiosity.
Entrepreneurship as a Route to Impact
Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in Knowledge Exchange by encouraging researchers to think differently about how their ideas create value. This session focuses on commercialisation as a route for translating those ideas into practice. Participants will consider the motivations, pathways, and mindset behind transforming research into ventures that make a tangible difference.
Generating Business Ideas from Research
This session helps researchers identify where their work could lead to new applications or innovations. Using design-thinking approaches, participants explore how their research insights could address real-world problems and generate ideas with potential for commercial use and broader impact beyond academia.
Making Ideas a Reality
Turning ideas into real-world outcomes requires clarity, structure and testing. This session introduces simple frameworks for defining value propositions, identifying users or beneficiaries and exploring delivery routes. Researchers learn how to map, test and communicate their ideas effectively, whether that be for funding, collaboration or market application.
Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
In this session, participants will learn how to use LinkedIn for visibility and credibility within and beyond academia. They will focus on overcoming limiting beliefs about self-promotion, using their profile to share expertise and tell their story and building meaningful connections with peers, collaborators and wider networks.
Communicating Your Personal Brand to Different Audiences
In this session, participants will earn how to distil their strengths into a clear statement of value and adapt their narrative for peers, funders, policymakers, industry and wider society. This workshop helps researchers communicate persuasively across visibility moments such as papers, pitches, interviews and cross-sector conversations.
Setting Up a Project for Success
Projects often fail because the basics aren’t thought through early enough. This session introduces simple tools to help researchers define what needs to be done, why, when and by whom. It also helps anticipate potential challenges before they derail progress, encouraging researchers to spot risks early, plan contingencies and build flexibility into their project foundations.
Planning for Delivery: Budget, Logistics, and Support
A good plan still needs real-world execution. This session helps researchers think through delivery essentials including budgeting, logistics, internal processes, and support so their project runs smoothly and stays on time, on budget, and people focused.
Managing Risks and Uncertainty in Research Projects
Research is full of uncertainty but most researchers haven’t been taught how to manage it proactively. This session introduces practical risk management techniques researchers can apply to any academic or collaborative project, helping them think ahead and respond when things change
Leading and Communicating in Collaborative Projects
Collaborative projects often mean shared control and diverse expectations. This session equips researchers with practical tools to map stakeholders, plan communication and lead with clarity and confidence, especially when influence matters more than authority.
Evaluating Project Outcomes and Capturing Learning
Did your project deliver its outputs? On time? On budget? And to the right specifications? Every project has a story worth telling in terms of what worked, what didn’t and what to do next time. This session introduces simple tools to evaluate project success, capture learning and communicate impact using recognised project evaluation and storytelling approaches.
Researchers’ Hidden Industry Value
Many researchers underestimate how valuable their skills are beyond academia. This session helps you recognise what employers are really looking for, translate your academic experience into industry language, and articulate the strengths you bring to roles across sectors.
Use LinkedIn to Jumpstart a New Career in Industry
LinkedIn may not be widely used in academia, but it’s a key platform for connecting with industry. This session shows researchers how to create a profile that speaks to employers, grow a purposeful network and use LinkedIn as a tool to explore opportunities, start conversations, and signal readiness for a new career path.
Future-proofing your Career with Project Management Skills
This session helps researchers recognise and articulate the project management skills they already use, like planning, communication and managing uncertainty and shows them how to turn this experience into a professional strength. Participants learn how to frame these skills in ways that are valued by employers across sectors.
Industry Interviews from Within
Interviews outside academia can feel unfamiliar, but they follow patterns you can prepare for. This session demystifies industry interviews, helping researchers understand what employers are really looking for and how to present themselves with clarity and confidence. You’ll learn practical strategies to prepare effectively, respond to common (and uncommon) questions, and show the impact you can bring to the role
Getting Started: GenAI 101 for Researchers
Generative AI is becoming part of the research landscape, but it is not always obvious where to start or how these tools might fit into everyday work. This session introduces AI in a straightforward, accessible way, treating it as a research assistant to help with drafting text, summarising information and sparking ideas, with the researcher’s judgement to guide and check its work.
How to Prompt and What to Trust with GenAI
GenAI tools can be powerful research companions but the quality of what they produce depends on what you put in. As with all types of systems, it’s important to understand the inputs and how they’re processed to produce the output. In this session, we focus on developing two essential skills: how to prompt effectively and how to judge if the results can be trusted.
Ethical Research in the Age of GenAI
This session explores how GenAI can act as a career companion, offering support with drafting CVs, tailoring applications, preparing for interviews and even exploring diverse career pathways, both inside and outside academia.
Beyond Academia:Harnessing AI to Power Your Career Leap
Unlock exciting career opportunities beyond academia with the power of AI. In this workshop, you’ll leverage AI to identify and articulate your transferable skills, explore diverse career paths and enhance your professional profile.