Contents:

1. Postponement of social event
2. Decolonizing working group workshop re: 2022-23 Studentships, December 2021
3. RA internship opportunities
4. Students’ Forum January 2022
5. LISS DTP Training – Spring 2022
6. New advanced training courses for LISS DTP for 2021/22
7. Student funding available
8. 2022 ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships
9. Workshop: Translating your research to a non-academic world
10. Workshop: The engaged scholar
11. Update from the LISS DTP Team

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1. Postponement of end-of-term social event

It is with great regret that the LISS Management Team have postponed our in-person end of term social on Tuesday 7th December.

In light of updated KCL Guidance on hosting in-person events following recent heightened concern over the latest COVID-19 variant, we feel that this is the best decision to keep our staff and student community safe ahead of the winter break. We will rearrange this in-person activity as soon as it is safe to do so in the new year. We were delighted to see so many of you register to attend and are looking forward to being able to see you in person at the earliest opportunity.

2. King’s Decolonizing Working Group event re: October 2022 entry studentships – 14^th December 2021, 2.00pm

The LISS DTP Directors are working with the King’s Decolonizing Working Group to host an online workshop on Tuesday 14th December from 2.00-3.30pm, aimed at prospective students for 2022-23, in which information and advice on how to apply for Master’s/PhD study and funding will be provided. This workshop aims to encourage applicants from under-represented backgrounds to apply for the 2022-23 funding we have available, but is open to all to attend.  Please help us to spread the word to any groups of current final year undergraduate students and/or taught postgraduate students that you’re aware of.

The workshop will be delivered on Zoom. Anybody interested in attending is asked to register via the following online form for us to have a reasonable idea beforehand of the number of attendees.  Registrants will be subsequently sent the meeting link.

1. New LISS DTP Research Assistant Internships Available – receive a funding extension of up to 13 weeks

We are pleased to announce that we have confirmed additional Research Assistant Internship opportunities for LISS DTP funded students starting from January 2022. Our Research Assistant internship Scheme enables LISS DTP funded students to work as Research Assistants for a period of up to 13 weeks full-time (or part-time equivalent) with an academic based at King’s, Queen Mary or Imperial. Interns will benefit from, for example: working with a larger team of researchers, gaining academic writing practice, training in research methods, networking and dissemination, collaboration with external partners.  Interns continue to receive their usual stipend payment for the duration of the internship and payments are extended by the relevant number of weeks at the end of the original funding end date.

Details of the six internship projects can be found at https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/internships. If you are interested please get in touch with the person named as Contact.  The Contact is responsible for selecting the student to take up the internship.  If you are selected, the you must then apply for an internship extension via the form at https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/studentships/managing-your-liss-dtp-studentship/funded-extension-schemes/ in order to show that you have obtained the agreement of your supervisor and so that the appropriate changes to your funding records can be made.

1. LISS DTP Students’ Forum – 25^th January 2022, 3.00-4.00pm

The LISS DTP Directors will be holding a forum for all current LISS students on the afternoon of Tuesday, 25^th January.  The meeting will be held online, via Teams at the following meeting link.  It is your chance to tell us how everything is going for you so far as a LISS DTP student – good and bad.  We hope to see you then.  We will also send a separate reminder email in early-January, which will include the meeting link again.

1. LISS DTP Training Programme – Registration for Spring 2022

We will open registration for our Spring term courses on Friday, 10th December. Please revisit the LISS DTP Training Page on 10th December for an updated list of course outlines (with 2022 dates and meeting times) before confirming your course registration on Skillsforge.

We will circulate a separate email for our LISS DTP Writing Skills Programme registration shortly.

1. Advanced Training courses for LISS DTP for 2021/22 

The LISS DTP team would appreciate your help with commissioning new Advanced Training courses for LISS DTP for 2021/22.

Based on student requests, we’re specifically keen to commission courses on the following topics:

We are looking for postdocs, teaching fellows, adjunct teaching staff, or advanced PhD students to teach new LISS DTP courses. If you have the expertise to teach courses on these topics, please contact Dr. Paul Copeland, LISS DTP Deputy Director for Training.

Our remit is to offer training across the following 5 areas:

• Social theory & epistemology
• Quantitative methods
• Qualitative methods
• Digital methods & archival research
• Knowledge transfer & co-generation methodologies (more details here: https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/our-training-programme/)

We are happy to receive proposals for courses that people would like to teach, which can be submitted to our Course Proposal form.

Dr. Copeland is very happy to discuss ideas for new proposals as well.

1. LISS DTP Student Funding – next application deadline: 4^th January

Your LISS DTP studentship provides you with many opportunities to secure additional funding for activities that will be beneficial both to your doctoral thesis and your future career – for instance, Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) funds (RTSG) and Overseas Fieldwork Funding (OSFW).  Full information about these and other opportunities are available on the LISS DTP website at Research and Event Funding – LISS-DTP.  With the next application deadline for these funds occurring soon now, please read the information available on our website thoroughly if you are looking to secure any such additional funding for the early part of the new calendar year.

1. 2022 ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships

The 2022 ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships competition is open!  Further details available at: https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/esrc-pdf/

Application deadline: 16.00 on 23 March 2022.

If you would like to find out more about the Postdoctoral Fellowships competition and application process or have any questions please attend our briefing session.  The LISS Postdoctoral Fellowships applicant briefing session will be held online on Wednesday 19th January 2022, 15.30-16.30. If you would like to attend this session, please register via the link here: Post Doc Briefing session – 19th January 2022, 15.30-16.30

LISS DTP invites applications for seven ESRC-funded Post-Doctoral Fellowships (PDFs) to commence from 1^st October 2022 to be held at King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, or Imperial College London. PDFs provide an opportunity for those in the immediate postdoctoral stage of their career to consolidate their PhD through developing publications, networks, as well as research and professional skills.

Fellowships will provide funding for up to one year full-time, or up to two years part-time to cover the fellow’s salary plus up to £10,000 of additional costs (e.g., travel, conference attendance, training, fieldwork, mentoring time, etc.).

All Fellows are required to have a mentor based at the research organisation where the fellowship is held. The mentor should have experience and a strong interest in the applicant’s field of research but should not normally have been the applicant’s PhD supervisor. Proposals are welcome from both single disciplines and combinations of disciplines but the fellowship activities must be based at least 50% within the social sciences and must fall under one of LISS DTP’s Thematic Pathways: https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/thematic-pathways/.

The call is open to applicants who:

1. completed their PhD at a research organisation that is part of a current ESRC-funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) or Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). A list of these DTPs and CDTs is available at the bottom of the ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowships web page; AND,
2. by the application deadline (23 March 2022), either have been awarded a PhD or submitted their thesis and passed their viva voce (or passed with minor corrections),with the expectation that their PhD will be awarded by the Fellowship start date (1 October 2022); AND,
3. have no more than 12 months of active post-doctoral experience. This 12 month period is calculated from the date of the viva being passed to the closing date of the competition, 23 March 2022.

The call specification, frequently asked questions and application form are available on the LISS DTP website: https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/esrc-pdf/. If you have any queries, please email: liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk

The deadline for applications is 16.00 on 23 March 2022.

1. Translating your research to a non-academic world workshops, January 2022

Organiser: Lucy Thomas

With the competitiveness of the current academic job market and scarcity of post-doctoral opportunities, it is crucial to be able to communicate your research and skills gained from your PhD to non-academic audiences. This online workshop has been designed to help you develop the skills to be able to translate your research in a non-academic and non-research context.

In this workshop, you will learn how to:

• explore your own enterprising skills and how they relate to translating academic research to a non-academic audience;
• identify ideas for creating value from your research;
• develop ideas that create value and make a difference to others;
• identify and communicate with stakeholders; and
• pitch yourself and your research effectively to a chosen audience.

You will learn how to translate your research to a non-academic world in the first full-day workshop (Wednesday 19 January 2022), and present a 2-minute video communicating your research in a non-research context in the second half-day (Thursday 27 January 2022). Both sessions will be held online.

To apply for the workshop, please fill out the form here.

Please contact Lucy Thomas (lucy.thomas@kcl.ac.uk) with any queries or for further information.  If you are very interested in attending but have conflicting commitments, please let Lucy know.

Further information concerning these workshops can be found in the attached document.

1. A Discussion with Professor Andy Hoffman: The Engaged Scholar – January 2022

Are you interested in doing impactful research? Join Professor Andy Hoffman, the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan and the author of the book “The Engaged Scholar: Expanding the Impact of Academic Research in Today’s World” to discuss public engagement to create real world change. The session will take place online on 20th January 2022 from 4.00-5.0pm GMT.

The first 30 participants to register at this workshop will receive an e-copy of the book. Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-discussion-with-professor-andrew-hoffman-the-engaged-scholar-tickets-212002684737 to receive further details and your copy of the book.

1. Update from the LISS DTP Team

Staffing Update: we are pleased to welcome Aniqa Tahsin to the LISS DTP Team as LISS DTP Administrator. Aniqa will be working with the team 3 days a week over the coming months – do say ‘Hello’ to Aniqa as you start to receive emails from her!

Annual Leave: The LISS DTP Team will be on annual leave from 23/12/2021 – 05/01/2021. We will not be monitoring the LISS DTP inbox or our individual email accounts during this time.

Happy Holidays: We hope you all have a fun and restful break and we look forward to seeing you all in the New Year! Happy Holidays from the LISS DTP Team!

1. Items for next newsletter

The LISS DTP team want to do more to help students disseminate information about events/activities they want to share with the rest of the cohort. If you have any items – Information and/or good news – to be included in our monthly newsletter, please send them to this email address for the attention of Stephen Wadsworth by 7^th January, for the next newsletter, with all the details and we’ll include it in our monthly circular! Newsletters will be sent in the first full working week of every month!