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Releasing Potential:
A series of one-day workshops!

In our ongoing commitment to support early career researchers and beyond, we are thrilled to announce a series of full-day workshops covering a wide range of topics.

Rather than a one-off event, this series allows you to book your participation for multiple workshops. The booking for each subsequent event will open once the previous one concludes. We encourage you to tailor your registration to align with your current research stage by clicking on the links below to secure your spot.

Please note that all workshops will take place in-person in Manchester City Centre; online participation is not available. These workshops are free of charge, but spaces are limited, and a waiting list will be maintained. We welcome participants from across the board, and you need not be limited to the North West to join us. Your academic journey begins here!

Book your spot

Releasing Potential Series

Chamber Space, 151 Deansgate Manchester M3 3WD.

PCAF & PLAF Application

Date: 28 November 2024

Booking Now

This workshop will look closely at what is required to make a competitive application to the Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (PCAF) and/or Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (PLAF). The programmes enable health and social care clinicians and practitioners (excluding doctors and dentists) to begin to develop their research careers. During the workshop there will be inputs from the NIHR PCAF Scheme Manager, member of the PCAF Selection Panel, and current and previous PCAF and PLAF award holders.

The workshop will explore:

  • The PCAF & PLAF scheme in the context of the broader NIHR Fellowship programme.
  • What makes a good application; common pitfalls, detail of what NIHR is looking for in applications with some ‘top tips’. Current and previous award holders will give delegates an idea of what to expect from the scheme, how they managed the application process and their own personal journeys.
  • The timing of applications and the application process.

This workshop is aimed at those who intend to submit an application for a PCAF or PLAF or wish to benchmark themselves in terms of readiness for submitting an application.

Past Events in this series :

Getting Started in Research

Resilience as a Health & Care Researcher

WriteHere, RightNow

Career Planning

Introductory Coaching Skills

Getting Started in Research

This one-day workshop has been designed for health and social care professionals working either within the NHS or local authority settings, or in organisations providing services on their behalf. Employees new to research either through engagement or simply curiosity, will examine the nature and suitability of the pathways currently available and have an opportunity to explore new emergent research pathways. All participants will be introduced to the prospect of collaborative applied health and social care research.

It has been developed to support those who are at the very early stages of the development of research careers providing participants with the opportunity to explore important issues relating to what is often described as research into practice or practice-based research.

Developmental priorities and opportunities will be explored through a range of exercises to help move early career researchers from thinking about getting started in research to developing a tangible course of action to make this a reality. The workshop will allow participants the space to think about where they are now, and where they want to be with respect to research, considering some of the barriers that might get in their way, and coming up with next steps in their research journey.

On completion of the workshop, participants will:

  • Increase their understanding of what a researcher academic career will look like
  • Begin to consider if they are ready to start research
  • Have a better understanding of collaborative opportunities
  • Have a sound appreciation of funding and other resources available to support early career researchers
  • Be well placed to begin to engage in sound research career planning.

This workshop is aimed at very early career researchers with an interest in research and wish to explore further what a career as a researcher academic will look and also develop their research skill and expertise. This is not suitable for anyone who has already applied for a PCAF, PLAF or PhD and beyond.

Resilience as a Health & Care Researcher

Staying connected to the heart of your research life

  • Reconnect with what resources your resilience and well-being
  • Be clear on your direction, know how to prioritise and set meaningful goals
  • Explore what knocks you off balance and how to regain it
  • Learn to manage self-limiting beliefs and build confidence
  • Learn from the collective wisdom of the group

The challenges of research can make it hard to sustain a sense of personal resilience and well-being whatever the setting you find yourself in. Research life can be unpredictable, precarious and challenging, it can feel chaotic and throw up a whole barrage of challenges. It’s unusual to feel overwhelmed, insecure confused and generally out of balance! The list could go on. It can be easy to lose yourself, your sense of direction and well-being.

Unique to this workshop, you are NOT going to be told what resilience is, and what you SHOULD do to build it. Resilience comes in many shapes and forms, generally pointing to the ability to recover from setbacks, to adapt to changing circumstance and keep going in the face of adversity. However, the workshop is designed to build on your experience and the collective wisdom of the group, to develop an understanding of what resilience means for you and how you can develop strategies to nourish and sustain it in relation to everyday research life.

This one-day, experiential and interactive coaching-based workshop will create an opportunity to re-engage with your own sense of personal resilience and well-being, and be challenged with how to bring that into your everyday life.

This workshop is aimed at health and care practitioner research academics who wish to develop their resilience.

WriteHere, RightNow

Unique ‘live’ coaching writing retreat

  • Dedicated, focused and productive writing time
  • Better confidence, motivation and mood management
  • Greater awareness of what gets in the way and how to overcome it
  • Strategies for consistent and productive writing practice in the context of wider academic work
  • Learning from the collective wisdom of the group
  • Commit to a personal writing practice

Research requires writing and whether you love or hate writing creating a regular habit of writing as a researcher is a challenge for anyone! It’s rare to feel you’ve done enough writing and frustration can soon lead to anxiety and a sense that “I’m not good enough”.

WriteHere, RightNow offers a unique format that brings together the space of a writing retreat with the provocation of live coaching to enhance and sustain an effective writing experience. The basis of these retreats emerged from coaching researchers to take a step back, realign with the purpose of their writing and engage in strategies to bring writing back into the heart of their work. The retreat provides a powerful format to get writing done, harnessing the collective energy of the group, while the live coaching invites greater awareness of how to shape the writing experience. By bringing a focus on maximising the potential of the writing, and learning to creatively manage interferences, performance becomes the outcome of an effective practice rather than a hindrance.

This unique combination of retreat and live coaching means that, while working on a current piece of writing, participants also engage in a series of coaching-based experiments. These experiments are designed to embed motivation, instill confidence and generate productive writing habits beyond the retreat itself. The retreat combines the power and wisdom of group learning, individual provocation and writing practice.

This workshop is aimed at health and care academic researchers at any level who wish to develop their writing skills.

Career Planning

This one-day workshop is designed for early career researcher practitioners looking to build research into their role alongside career planning skills.  It is essential to understand the nature of practitioner academic careers and navigate the opportunities which are available. 

In this workshop, we will build on the needs of practitioners who have begun their research journey but not yet submitted applications for a fellowship, such as a PhD. 

The topics will be led by the group member’s experience to date and are likely to include;

  • Integrating research into your practice
  • Thinking about your CV
  • What counts as research experience and how to build this
  • How to find the range of opportunities available
  • Discussing research with your manager – what can you bring to the team?


This workshop It is intended for early career researchers wishing to develop their career plan and will involve active participation.

Introductory Coaching Skills

This workshop is designed to provide an insight to how coaching is integral to achieving your research ambitions. The fundamental outcome will be for participants to secure an appreciation of their current coaching knowledge and abilities, and how transferring, developing, and applying these enhances a sustainable research career.

The input aspect of the workshop will introduce and explore:

  • Coaching as a tool for self development
  • Coaching as a tool for developing others
  • Essential coaching skills and techniques

The second half of the workshop will be practical, with participants engaging as a coach, coach and assessor. The outcomes will be to build your awareness skills and practice to identify, prioritise and plan your future coaching development and needs.

This workshop is aimed at health and care academic researchers who are early career researchers and wish to develop their coaching skills.

Next steps for a Post-Doc

14th November 2024

This workshop will explore the challenges and opportunities for Post Docs to actively develop and release their research leadership potential.  This workshop will be highly interactive throughout the day relying on engagement with fellow participants giving you the opportunity to:

  • Know yourself better to understand and enhance personal leadership effectiveness.
  • Optimise your direct and indirect impact on others and the wider health system.

Explore options for enhancing leadership resilience and reducing isolation.

With the experts in the room that we will also look at:

  • The fellowship process and the reality of managing an award .
  • The personal journey of previous/current award holders.
  • Impact – making your research visible.

This workshop is aimed at health and care academic researchers who have completed a PhD, have not yet secured post-doctoral awards and are looking at next steps in their research career.

Book Now