Graduate Research School HDR Advisors Advisor Networks

Advisor Networks

Supporting our Supervisors

Five community of practice groups will be convened each year between 12:00 - 1:00pm on a week day. Attendance is possible face to face in Townsville, Cairns and via Zoom. An email invitation is issued to advisors via the Graduate Research School. Current advisors are encouraged to offer topics, present and participate. Topics are intended to allow sharing of practice and open discussion to help advisors navigate their research environment successfully.

Come and celebrate JCU’s latest Advisor of the Year. Join us to hear from Professor Schwarzkopf, JCU’s 2020 Advisor of the Year. Lin has generously spoken at a range of panels and events over the years to support new and up and coming advisors. Today we invite her to focus on her advisory approach and her views of being an advisor at JCU.

Lin’s research examines broad ecological and evolutionary questions, including applied problems. She takes an integrative approach, using a combination of controlled experiments and observational studies to test hypotheses. Much of her research has used reptiles and amphibians as model systems, but she is broadly interested in a variety of groups.

When: Wednesday 4 November 2020 at 12-1pm AEST

Come and hear about how to support your candidates to maintain health and well-being. Share some ideas, understand how to access availability services, consider strategies and learn from those in the community.

Session Recording

PowerPoint Presentation

At this session, hear about the challenges and opportunities involved in making supervisory changes during candidature.  What might it mean for the trajectory of the candidature? What are the workload and funding implications of supervision across colleges? What are the approval processes and policy limitations?

When: 13 July 2020 at 12-1pm

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws76tk8myRA

Facilitator: Dr Michelle Redman-MacLaren, Associate Dean Research Education, College of Medicine & Dentistry

Panel:
  • Dr Karen Yates, Associate Dean Research Education, College of Healthcare Sciences
  • Dr Ruth Barker, College of Healthcare Sciences
  • Damian Palmer, Graduate Research School

View the video recording here. 

Useful Resources:

How to apply – including admission eligibility criteria, application form and much more for HDR candidates.

Scholarship information – scoring procedure, application process and much more for HDR candidates

Becoming an Advisor – Registration procedure and professional development requirements for current and potential HDR Advisors

In this session we will hear from some advisors and candidates working to develop contingency plans.  We will hear about some issues that have arisen and some possible ways forward.  The first part of the hour will involve hearing some advisor / candidate case studies.  We will then move into breakout groups so you can discuss issues with other advisors and candidates. The session will conclude with sharing what breakout groups have learned. Ideas and resources identified and shared with all attendees.

No recording available for this session.

Share strategies with other advisors and learn about how best to support candidates and each other during COVID-19.  Consider with others how to account for personal and infrastructure matters as we seek to enable research progress? Key Research Services Partners including the Library, Careers and Employment and eResearch Services are invited to join us to talk through issues that may need additional expertise, or to explain alternative approaches or options that we may all learn from.

No recording available for this session.

Please join us to share what you have learnt about supervising research projects under the constraints of COVID19.  We look forward to seeing what we can learn from each other to keep our researchers supported and progressing satisfactorily.  In the spirit of the times this session will be running exclusively via zoom.  We will be breaking up into zoom rooms so you can have discussions across a smaller group and then we will come back together to share ideas.

No recording available for this session.

Presented by: Associate Professor Andreas Lopata, Professor, Personal Chair, Division of Tropical Health & Medicine

Andreas will introduce his experience as an HDR Advisor of supporting student grant writing before we open discussion to allow all present to share their experiences.

Questions we might consider include:

  • What are some grants suitable for students?
  • What is the best time in candidature to encourage students to write grants?
  • What are some of the common challenges faced by students writing grants?
  • What are some of the success stories based on students getting grants?

Useful resources:

This event is hosted by Dr Melissa Crowe (Head of DTHM Cohort) and Dr Michelle Redman-MacLaren (CMD)

No recording available for this session.

Supporting satisfactory progress – Strategies for candidates behind on milestones

Meet the (research) supervisor’s friend - No-one is alone

Dr Geof Hill, host of the (research) supervisor’s friend blog, joined SOS to discuss collaborative advisor models and consider the role they can play in supporting our supervisors. To stimulate discussion Geof created a post on the blog on this topic.

Giving feedback on written work

Participants in this session shared their experiences and challenges in supporting candidates’ writing skills development.

Some key points raised:

  • Provide and discuss feedback on writing that the candidate can reflect on later
  • Balance positive feedback with honest constructive criticisms
  • Agree on a timeline for providing feedback and getting revised drafts
  • Use peer groups to provide initial editing and review of written work, provide a chance for students to set standards for the quality of work submitted to you
  • When giving critical feedback consider raising it in person rather than in writing
  • Keep track of feedback with the student so you can follow up on how they have responded
  • Ask the candidate to comment on areas of concerns – check they understand the feedback offered
  • Plan or priorities to resolve writing style issues
  • Provide a detailed annotation for one paragraph or section to highlight key writing concerns, the candidate can then review and revise the whole draft
  • Use track changes to compare what has been asked for and what has been done, and discuss if changes are too superficial
  • Be alert for writing issues that speak to other concerns   (e.g. conceptual weakness, lack of academic argument, English language)
  • Suggest workshops or online resources and resources that the student should access to address identified areas of concerns (e.g., GRS workshops, iThenticate, Library Guides etc.)
Additional Resources:
  • UNSW Arts and Social Sciences Supervisor Feedback Process
  • Cadman, Kate and Cargill, Margaret. Providing Quality Advice on Candidates' Writing [online]. In: Denholm, Carey (Editor); Evans, Terry (Editor). Supervising Doctorates Downunder: Keys to Effective Supervision in Australia and New Zealand. Camberwell, Vic.: ACER Press, 2007: 182-191. Availability:  ISBN: 9780864314307. [cited 17 Dec 19]. PDF (Written Feedback Cargill)

Supervisory practices of an Award Winner

Professor David Bellwood spoke about how the Bellwood lab supports student success.

Some key points raised:

  • Select students who are capable, with similar working styles and a passion for their topic.  He uses others in the lab to select the right new students.
  • Help the student frame a topic that makes use of their skills
  • The supervisory relationship involves acknowledging the whole person
  • Select co-supervisors you can work with and who can complement your supervisory style
  • Use students to support each other and encourage each other, collaborative and cooperative, their future networks
  • Be truthful, state expectations and be honest if they are not adequately met
  • Teach students to network, send them to conferences
  • Require students to publish and aim for high quality publications and be ready to celebrate failure as well as success
  • Take pleasure in the research and network to build opportunities
  • Supervision ends when the graduate has a job, the networking never ends
Additional Resources:

The Bellwood lab website

Supporting Women Advisors’ Network (SWAN)

An opportunity to meet an exceptional Woman advisor, researcher and leader and learn from her experience. A provocation will be raised to encourage you to work together to identify and realise your goals as a research advisor. Access via zoom for all JCU staff from all campuses.

Professor Bette Jacobs will be joining us via Zoom from Georgetown University to share the story of her academic career and reflect on the role of Higher Degree Research supervision, as she wove a career between business and the academy. Please join us to learn more about the role of leadership, resilience and sponsorship have played in the life of this Distinguished Scholar.

Professor Bette Jacobs is a Distinguished Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. She is Professor, Health Systems Administration; and a Fellow and Visiting Professor at Campion Hall University of Oxford. A Native American whose body of work spans community, academic, service, and corporate leadership, she is recognized for contributions in successful start-ups, financial integrity, and interdisciplinary innovations. She served with distinction as Dean for the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies for 11 years overseeing unprecedented programmatic growth within the University. Previous executive experience includes vice presidency for Honda of America Manufacturing; founding faculty member and Associate Director of Applied Research at the Civitan International Research Center; and Acting Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at California State University. Jacobs’ extraordinary cross-disciplinary and cross- sector leadership has fostered innovation and improved systems. Her personal and professional activities emanate from crossing childhood cultural boundaries triangulating a colonized, missionized tribal history through pathways in education, business, and service. Strong cultural roots anchor and animate her work to advance the common good with practical abilities to do so.

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIj7eFoYAbA

Our invited exceptional woman for the inaugural SWAN is Dr Sandy Hirsh who will join us via zoom from San Jose State University.  The School of Information at SJSU offers all of its programs 100% online, including a PhD Gateway program.  Sandy has recently been promoted to the role of Associate Dean for Academics, College of Professional and Global Education at San Jose State University.  In her presentation she will talk of her experience as a leader and of her pivotal role in the development of the unique PhD Gateway program.  As advisors looking to increasingly support candidates online, in response to the COVID-19 emergency, her expertise and knowledge of building an online research education culture has much to offer us.

Early Career Researcher Network

Early career researchers (ECRs) are academic staff who have completed doctoral studies in the last five years (periods of maternity, career or extended leave will be deducted when assessing eligibility) on any JCU campus and in any discipline.

We invite ECRs who are members of JCU’s academic staff to participate in our ECR training program. We provide a range of opportunities, listed below.

Information on the sessions on offer is provided below. You can only do the face-to-face session OR the online program.

We provide this network meeting to let you follow up on the Thinkwell Planning your Career workshop to be on Tuesday 24 November from 1.30-4pm.  Take the opportunity to progress initial discussions and work further with colleagues to progress your career plans, and identify possible networks and connections that may assist you.

Facilitated by Fatima Yaqoot and Jennifer Gabriel

When: Tuesday 1 December 2020 at 12-1pm AEST (10-11am Singapore)

Register here: https://jcu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsf-CsrTgiHNfmEL9B964cXVEcc76S5mUb

At the previous meeting we assessed our ability to respond to two of the four UK Vitea Professional Development quadrants. We now consider the final two quadrants. Share capabilities you have, resources you know about and opportunities and challenges you face with other ECRs to continue your Advisor Development journey.

When: Wednesday 21 October 2020 at 12-1pm AEST

To succeed long term in a highly competitive environment, it is essential that early career researchers develop effective working habits. This 3.5-hour workshop provides practical advice to help researchers increase productivity by enhancing their current time management practices. The session will tackle common challenges such as prioritising constructively, making time for writing, managing interruptions and effectively running multiple projects at the same time. The highly interactive format of the event ensures that participants leave the session with practical tools and ideas that suit their own working styles and circumstances.

Presented by Dr Kerstin Fritsches, Managing Director, PostdocTraining

Kerstin is a former research fellow who spent the majority of her 12-year research career on grant funding, with first-hand experience of the challenges facing early career researchers and a strong track record in postdoc affairs and career development. A lack of effective career training for PhDs led Kerstin to found PostdocTraining in 2011, to bridge a gap in professional development by delivering support tailored specifically for PhD candidates and postdocs. PostdocTraining delivers career development support and mentoring for researchers worldwide and Kerstin has become a sought-after workshop facilitator on topics such as career planning and research leadership both in Europe and Australia.

When: Wednesday 7 October at 10am to 3pm via Zoom

Register here: TBA

Repeat session: Thursday 8 October at 10am to 3pm via Zoom

Register here: TBA

** There is a limit of 35 participants per session and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis **

The network will discuss high demand HDR Advisor capabilities and skills and how ECRs can communicate their abilities as they seek to join new advisory panels.

In this session we will build on themes identified in the Thinkwell workshop: Developing a research track record on a shoestring, that was held on Monday 13 July.  View the slides here.

Join other Early Career Researchers to share your experiences:

  1. Share networks and collaborations you part of, discuss how they are supporting your research activities
  2. What networks and collaborations do you aspire to join and why, how will you overcome any barriers?
  3. What is your next research activity plan? Share a research priority and consider the networks or collaborative partners that could assist.

When: Wednesday 29 July 2020 at 12-1pm via Zoom

Supporting resources:

JCU workshop resources

JCU Library Guide – Publishing Academic Research - Being Strategic

Books available online and hard copy from the JCU Library Catalogue

  • The artist's guide to grant writing : how to find funds and write foolproof proposals for the visual, literary, and performing artist / Gigi Rosenberg.
  • The art of funding and implementing ideas : a guide to proposal development and project management / by Arnold R. Shore, John M. Carfora.
  • Find grant funding now! [electronic resource] : the five-step prosperity process for entrepreneurs and business / Sarah Beth Aubrey.
  • Getting the grant [electronic resource] : how educators can write winning proposals and manage successful projects / Rebecca Gajda and Richard Tulikangas.
  • Grant application writer's handbook / Liane Reif-Lehrer.
  • Grant money through collaborative partnerships [electronic resource] / Nancy Kalikow Maxwell.
  • Grant seeking in higher education [electronic resource] : strategies and tools for college faculty / Mary M. Licklider and The University of Missouri Grant Writer Network ; foreword by David Attis.
  • Grant Writing [electronic resource].
  • Grant writing for dummies [electronic resource] / by Dr. Beverly A. Browning, MPA, DBA.
  • How to be an academic : the thesis whisperer reveals all / Inger Mewburn.
  • How to prepare effective applications for grant funding / by Rob Tonge and Graeme Lee.