Tag: Doctoral Students

British Federation of Women Graduates Awards for doctoral students 2026 (apply by: 02 March)

Applications for British Federation of Women Graduates Academic Awards are now being sought. The Awards are made to women doctoral students who are expecting to submit between March 2027 and February 2028, if full time, and between March 2027 and February 2029, if part-time.

Awards are one-off prizes varying in value from £1,000 to £6,000 (at the panel’s discretion) and are given for academic excellence coupled with the ability to communicate to an educated but non-specialist audience.

For further details please go to: https://bfwg.org.uk/bfwg2/awards-and-scholarships/ and look under ‘Academic Awards’ where more information, including criteria for eligibility, can be found.

Closing date for applications is: 9am on Monday 2nd March 2026

New Work and Professional Experiences Webpage

Keen to secure professional experience this winter break?

Our new Work and professional experiences webpage is the perfect place to explore all the ways you can get hands-on experience while studying from internships and part time work to shadowing and volunteering

Learn about different types of experiences, how to prepare for work experience, and where you can find opportunities here.

NetDRIVE Summer Schools

Two fully-funded NetDRIVE summer schools for PhD students, focused around Net-Zero and responsible research when using Digital Research Infrastructure. These will be during the summer of 2026, and spring of 2027.

If you would like to be notified when the application form goes live, please enter your details here.

To apply for a place on the 2026 summer school, please use this form

More details at https://durham.readthedocs.io/en/latest/netdrive/index.html.

New Doctoral Theses: access and alerts

Looking for Imperial theses? Explore and download theses via the Library’s guide:

Stay updated with Spiral

  • Imperial users can subscribe to collections (e.g., departmental PhD theses) and receive daily, weekly, or monthly digests of newly added items.
  • Log in with College credentials to subscribe.
  • External users can follow updates via RSS for the same collections.

How to subscribe (Imperial users)

  1. Go to Spiral: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk
  2. Open the collection you want to follow (e.g., “Physics PhD theses”).
  3. Click “Subscribe” and choose your preferred frequency.
  4. Manage your preferences here: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/subscriptions

Introducing dAIsy – Imperial’s New GenAI workspace

dAIsy is Imperial’s new Generative AI platform, designed to give you safe, easy access to multiple AI models (such as GPT, Claude, Deepseek, and others) through a single interface.

dAIsy is built to support teaching, learning, and research while ensuring data protection and institutional compliance.

Why use dAIsy?

  • Private and secure – your data stays protected. All your prompts and chat history are stored securely in Imperial’s cloud.
  • Build your own agents – You can define instructions or behaviours suited to your specific needs.
  • Advanced developer role available on request – if you want to go deeper.

Imperial offers licensed AI models to promote equitable access and, alongside Microsoft Copilot, dAIsy supports our commitment to harnessing AI’s transformative potential responsibly and effectively.

Further support

Join a new PhD Participatory Research Network!

A group of PhD students has set up a PhD Participatory Research Network (funded by LISS-DTP) to connect PhD students interested in participatory methods – approaches where people with lived experience are active partners in shaping all stages of the research process. Each month, we’ll meet to explore a different theme through interactive workshops, peer discussions, and guest speakers. Together, we’ll build a collective toolkit of resources and guidance by PhD students, for PhD students.

Our first session will be held at REACH Space, 3rd Floor, Surrey Street East Wing, Strand Campus, King’s College London, on Wednesday 5th November, 2pm-4pm. Our network is open to all PhD students from King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, and Imperial College London. If you are based elsewhere but would like to join, please email Emma (e.hayashibara@qmul.ac.uk). As spaces are limited, please register your interest via Eventbrite to secure your place. If you can no longer attend, kindly cancel your registration so that someone else can take your spot.

For any questions about the network, feel free to contact Emma (e.hayashibara@qmul.ac.uk).

Help Us Build the Student Parent and Carers Network at Imperial!

Are you a parent, an expectant parent, or a carer navigating student life at Imperial?

We understand that balancing academic life with parenting or caregiving responsibilities can be both incredibly rewarding and uniquely challenging. That’s why we’re building a stronger, more supportive Student Parent and Carers Network, and we invite you to be part of it.

Our first crucial step is to find out more about the experiences and needs of Imperial student parents and carers. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey by clicking here: Imperial Student Parent and Carers survey

This network is designed to offer:

✅ Peer Support: Connect with fellow student parents and carers who understand your experience.

✅ Dedicated Events: Family-friendly, care-friendly and flexible networking opportunities, support sessions, and socials.

✅ Advocacy & Voice: Help shape how Imperial supports students like you.

✅ Resources & Guidance: Clear, accessible information on everything from parental or emergency leave, advice on childcare, wellbeing, and flexible study options.

Whether you’re currently parenting, expecting a child, supporting a partner who is, or caring for a family member or friend, you are welcome here.

How to Join:

Simply complete the survey above and join at the end, or reply to this email with your details and we will add you to the Network.

If you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us at, studentparentsandcarers@imperial.ac.uk

Imperial CREST Academy – Mentor Year 12 Students

The Imperial CREST Academy helps to match academic mentors to teams of Year 12 students who are undertaking a CREST Gold Project (or an Extended Project Qualification), which can be thought of as a scientific Duke of Edinburgh award, run by the British Science Association. The projects help the students go beyond school curriculum and get a small taste of scientific research. It is also hugely helpful for the students when applying to university as it helps with their personal statements and also gives them more breadth of knowledge and understanding should they be interviewed for a place at University.

The CREST Academy is run by Prof Cecilia Johansson (National Heart and Lung Institute) and myself, Simon Foster (FoNS & Imperial Space Lab). The Academy has been running for 13 years and has helped hundreds (possibly now thousands) of students undertake a CREST project and have gained a vital glimpse into the world of scientific research and academia.

The role of the mentor is to guide the project, initially helping to shape the project into something that can be conducted by the students in 70 hours (the rough allotted time for the project) and to give general scientific guidance. This is usually quite light touch and involves 2-3 meetings (in person or virtually) along with occasional emails. You will not be required to ensure the students are working on the projects or ‘push’ them, along, as this is the responsibility of their teacher. I have mentored a number of projects over the years and always found them immensely satisfying and they have had a huge impact upon the students. Based up my experiences, the time commitment is approximately 3-5 hours over the academic year (20 – 30 mins per online meeting and reading and responding to occasional emails).

If this might be of interest we will be holding an introduction an online Teams meeting on Friday 24th October at 11am top take you through the scheme: This link will take you to the meeting  Join the meeting now and if you email me, I can add you to the meeting invite. A recording of a previous intro meeting can be found here:  CREST chat-20221104_113001-Meeting Recording.mp4

You can also look at the projects interested and submit your interest in mentoring a project here https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0cz4YjDGrPemOlo

Launch of New Interdisciplinary Research Community

We are pleased to invite you to a networking and discussion event to mark the launch of a new interdisciplinary research community at Imperial. This network brings together researchers working in the fields of limb loss, physical rehabilitation, and prosthetic technologies, with the aim of fostering collaboration and advancing shared challenges across disciplines.

Event Highlights:

  • Welcome and introductory talk outlining the network’s aims and objectives
  • Expert speakers
  • Small-group discussion on current challenges in the field
  • Opportunities to identify areas for collaboration and future initiatives
  • Informal networking and drinks reception

We hope this event will serve as a springboard for new connections and collaborative projects across Imperial.

To confirm your attendance, kindly fill out the RSVP form by the Friday, 31st Oct, 2025.

Climate Literacy Training (Oct 2025 to July 2026 dates available)

Climate change is one of the biggest problems our society is facing today. Sustainable Imperial is on a mission to help staff and students understand climate change: why it’s happening, it’s impacts on our planet and what we can all do about it.

The Climate Literacy Training sessions and Climate Fresk workshops are scheduled throughout the year and are now open for registration for staff and postgraduate students. You can also register your interest in organising a bespoke session for your team.

Climate Literacy Training

Climate Literacy Training is a half-day, action-packed course comprised of lecture, discussions and group quiz sections – teams can even win prizes!

Climate Fresk

Climate Fresk workshops are interactive, hands-on workshops where participants puzzle together the pieces of climate change’s causes and effects.

Register here!