Below I am discussing, at length why I believe I should receive the Research Plus Award, addressing each point of the Researcher Excellence Framework, giving evidence how the past two and a half years have contributed to my personal and my career development.
1. Knowledge and Intellectual abilities
a. Knowledge base
Throughout my PhD I have been able to attend a number of courses organised by the QUB postgraduate centre, which allowed me to further my knowledge and gain valuable skills within my PhD and beyond it, thus increasing my employability. These include for example ‘Leading your PhD’, ‘Better power point presentations’, ‘Applying your research into policy’, ‘Introduction to project management’, ‘Introduction to thematic analysis’ and …show more content…
Cognitive abilities
Throughout the PhD, I was able to learn a new suite of analysis skills including multimodel inference, spatio-temporal analysis and working with different statistical programmes. This has been challenging and at times frustrating. However, I know now that the process of learning a new skill is as important as the outcome (such as a written chapter). I am now appreciating effort I put into my own work, rather than judging the progress I am making, based on written work for example. This has been a very important personal lesson for me.
As part of my PhD I have been organizing and leading fieldwork in saltmarsh & intertidal coastal habitats as part of the CBESS (Coastal biodiversity ecosystem service sustainability) consortium project. To be able to do this I gained insight in a number of sampling methods to evaluate ecosystems services (e.g. nutrient fluxes, PAM flourometry, carbom sequestration), but have been working on fish and macroinvertebrate sampling primarily, leading my own fieldwork independently of other scientists.
c. …show more content…
The card game was designed by myself in collaboration with another PhD student from the University of Bristol.
2. Personal effectiveness
a. Personal qualities
The PhD gave me a great deal of responsibility and allowed me to develop my leadership skills, which made me more confidence in my own abilities. I learned in particular how to effectively communicate across hierarchies and became more confident in speaking to senior academic staff and networking (see below in more detail). I feel that I have become a more ambitious, enthusiastic person and confident individual.
b. Self-management
The PhD has taught me in particular how to make optimal use of meeting times and supervisor time, which was a challenge at first, but has improved significantly. The use of time management techniques and Gannt charts in particular has been a significant improvement in the management of my PhD and I suspect projects in the
1. Knowledge and Intellectual abilities
a. Knowledge base
Throughout my PhD I have been able to attend a number of courses organised by the QUB postgraduate centre, which allowed me to further my knowledge and gain valuable skills within my PhD and beyond it, thus increasing my employability. These include for example ‘Leading your PhD’, ‘Better power point presentations’, ‘Applying your research into policy’, ‘Introduction to project management’, ‘Introduction to thematic analysis’ and …show more content…
Cognitive abilities
Throughout the PhD, I was able to learn a new suite of analysis skills including multimodel inference, spatio-temporal analysis and working with different statistical programmes. This has been challenging and at times frustrating. However, I know now that the process of learning a new skill is as important as the outcome (such as a written chapter). I am now appreciating effort I put into my own work, rather than judging the progress I am making, based on written work for example. This has been a very important personal lesson for me.
As part of my PhD I have been organizing and leading fieldwork in saltmarsh & intertidal coastal habitats as part of the CBESS (Coastal biodiversity ecosystem service sustainability) consortium project. To be able to do this I gained insight in a number of sampling methods to evaluate ecosystems services (e.g. nutrient fluxes, PAM flourometry, carbom sequestration), but have been working on fish and macroinvertebrate sampling primarily, leading my own fieldwork independently of other scientists.
c. …show more content…
The card game was designed by myself in collaboration with another PhD student from the University of Bristol.
2. Personal effectiveness
a. Personal qualities
The PhD gave me a great deal of responsibility and allowed me to develop my leadership skills, which made me more confidence in my own abilities. I learned in particular how to effectively communicate across hierarchies and became more confident in speaking to senior academic staff and networking (see below in more detail). I feel that I have become a more ambitious, enthusiastic person and confident individual.
b. Self-management
The PhD has taught me in particular how to make optimal use of meeting times and supervisor time, which was a challenge at first, but has improved significantly. The use of time management techniques and Gannt charts in particular has been a significant improvement in the management of my PhD and I suspect projects in the