Training and development
We offer a community-driven environment with extensive training, mentoring, leadership development and fellowship support to help you thrive within a vibrant, inclusive research culture.
We take your career and professional development seriously. As signatories to the Researcher Development Concordat, we are committed to empowering you to complete at least ten days of CPD each year.
Our Faculty Academic Development Programmes provide you with a solid grounding on the things you need to be successful at the University. The programmes cover inspirational teaching, research excellence and personal and professional development, including:
- Leading for Research Fellows at Manchester – working with other Fellows to extend research networks, you can consider your leadership style, how you interact with others, develop techniques for building collaboration and develop your leadership capabilities.
- Leading Researchers Programme – a collaborative interdisciplinary leadership development programme supporting you to develop your next big research idea and related large funding proposals.
- Researcher Development programme – led by the Fellows Development Team, you’ll have access to a range of professional and interpersonal skills, from communication and collaboration to support for promotions applications.
- Fellows Community Event – an annual event that brings together Fellows from Faculties across The University of Manchester to connect, share insights and celebrate collective impact.
You’ll also be provided with a senior mentor, with additional mentoring available for cross-School appointees and access to the University’s Manchester Gold mentoring scheme.
The Library offers skills training through its Open Research programme, focused on developing your knowledge of responsible and transparent research, publishing and communication, and open data and software.
Culture and community
Our vibrant and collaborative research community promotes and facilitates an open research environment, increasing equitable access and re-use of research findings and data, and promoting the transparency, reliability, reproducibility and impact of our research and research practices.
We have embedded a culture of good research practice, to enable you to produce work of the highest quality in its rigour, integrity, sustainability and creativity.
Our strategic ambitions include building on our record of path-breaking interdisciplinary research and bringing the world’s best people together, combining expertise from across disciplines to understand and find new solutions to society’s biggest questions.
With a wider University community of more than 12,800 colleagues, we have a diverse range of staff networks for you to engage with, including:
- Women@Manchester
- LGBT+ BeeProud
- Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff network group
- Disabled staff and PGR network group
- Parents, Carers and Guardians Network
Specifically for researchers, we have a University-wide Research Fellows Network and Research Staff Representatives Network. These are an integral and important part of our research governance – ensuring you have a voice to influence University policy, practice and culture.
Faculty fellowship training
Learn more about fellowships available at our Faculties of Biology, Medicine and Health; Humanities; and Science and Engineering, and how to apply.
The Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health are committed to nurturing and supporting the next generation of research leaders. Through the dedicated Fellowship Academy, they provide comprehensive guidance for those considering fellowship or individual award applications, as well as continued support after the award is granted.
The Academy offers one-on-one advice to help you determine if a fellowship aligns with your career goals and to identify suitable funding streams. They assist with every stage of the application process, from initial planning to preparing for fellowship interviews.
Working with the Academy, you gain access to a broad network of valuable contacts, including research support staff, current award holders (both clinical and non-clinical) and senior academics. Many of our academics have experience in funding panels or as peer reviewers. Additionally, they connect you with experts in public and patient engagement, inclusive research and other areas essential for impactful research.
Drawing on resources from across the Faculty and beyond, they leverage expertise spanning the translational pathway – from discovery science to population health research – to support your success.
The Faculty also has a representative body for current holders of fellowships, former fellowship holders and anyone who might want to apply for a fellowship. This Fellows’ Forum provides networking opportunities for current, past and potential award holders as well as advocacy at Faculty and University levels. It is an organisation run by researchers for researchers.
Learn more about fellowships in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.
The Faculty of Humanities is committed to delivering internationally-excellent research with real world impact. Research fellows play a critical part in delivering this mission, and we invest heavily in them.
They host a large and vibrant community of more than 60 research fellows through our innovative Humanities Fellowship Academy. As one of the largest groupings of humanities scholars in the world, the Faculty of Humanities offers a unique environment in which to develop your research career.
The Humanities Fellowship Academy ensures effective engagement with relevant support functions and academic groupings across the University. The Academy promotes the development of a cohort culture among our fellows, sharing experiences at different career stages and providing opportunities to engage in research discussions with each other, academics and mentors. You will be offered a programme of face-to-face meetings, training workshops and networking events, supported by mailing lists and networking and career development activities driven by fellows.
The Faculty of Humanities also hosts a research staff forum, with representatives from each part of the Faculty, to ensure that the voice of research fellows is effectively heard.
Learn more about fellowships in the Faculty of Humanities.
Fellowship holders in the Faculty of Science and Engineering address global challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration and world-leading fundamental research, combining expertise to tackle issues in advanced materials, biotechnology, energy and global inequalities. Interdisciplinary research institutes and facilities drive innovation in emerging sectors like AI, quantum technologies and biotechnology.
Tomorrow Labs is the largest collection of science and engineering facilities in any UK institution, with hundreds of highly skilled technicians providing support for teaching, research, infrastructure, core facilities, workshops and laboratories.
Fellowship holders also receive mentoring and support for career development, applying for high-value or strategic funding, developing research impact, industry engagement and internationalisation, enabling them to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Learn more about fellowships in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.