Development Sessions

The Festival of Postgraduate Research will host development sessions alongside presentations celebrating the work of our PGR community.

Festival attendees will be able to select to participate in a range of development sessions that support their Learning and Personal GrowthLink opens in a new window.

Development sessions will be approximately 45mins and held in both the morning and afternoon sessions.

We welcome proposals for development sessions from across our diverse Warwick community to support and celebrate our outstanding PGR community.

Submission closing date 16 MAR 2026

Festival Theme

“You are a researcher—and you are growing, not just academically, but personally.”

Doctoral Value - Learning and Personal Growth

This value recognises that doing a PhD is more than producing a thesis – it’s an evolving journey of identity, confidence, and transformation. PGRs spoke of learning not only within their subject, but through trial, error, and emotional struggle. Many entered with high expectations - “I thought I’d have publications in my first year” - and learned to accept non- linear progress.

There were calls for honesty from the outset: to acknowledge how hard the journey can be, and that not knowing is part of the process. Growth includes gaining resilience, building new skills, and redefining what success means - especially when facing rejection, imposter feelings, or shifting career paths.

This value invites a culture that nurtures growth as it happens.

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Festival Development Session Form

Development Session Title

Who

We want to understand who will be delivering your development session in order that we can contact you (and your collaborators).

We welcome development sessions from PGRs & Staff across the University of Warwick community.

We value co-creation and collaboration across the Festival and we want to know if you will be co-creating and delivering your session with PGRs, other departments, or partner institutions (including industry partners). Co-creation is not a mandatory session requirement.

NB The Doctoral College is able to support PGR costs to create and deliver session. We can support up to 2 PGRs for 3hrs of work (2hrs preparation & 1hr delivery) SP22.

Uni ID

Name

Warwick Email address

Department

Yes, this session will be co-created with PGRs

Yes, this session will be co-created with other department(s)

Yes, this session will be co-created with university partners

No, this session will not be co-created

Please provide details of intended co-creation collaborators

Why

We want to understand how your session will contribute to develop Doctoral Value - Learning & Personal Growth for the PGR community.

We welcome sessions for the whole Warwick community, but encourage sessions principally for the development of PGRs.

Please provide details of how your session develops Doctoral Value Learning & Personal Growth

How

We want to understand how you intend to deliver your session to enable us to support your sessions needs.

The Festival will be a flexible hybrid event, therefore there are opportunities for in-person, online and hybrid sessions

We welcome multisensory interactivity to support engagement and accessibility, however we encourage all to use the form that best delivers their message and aims.

NB The Doctoral College is able to support resources costs for PGR only created sessions.

In-person only

Online only

Hybrid

Please provide details of your session delivery

Please provide details of resources you require to deliver the session

Privacy notice

This form will be used in the management an event. Your session submission for the event will be recorded and associated with your name, but no other personally identifiable data will be stored, and the data will not be used for any purpose other than to manage and record of the event. Please see our Staff Privacy Notice or Student Privacy Notice for further information.

The University of Warwick is the Data Controller of any information you have entered on this form and is committed to protecting the rights of individuals in line with Data Protection Legislation. The University's Data Protection webpages provide further information on your rights and how the University processes personal data. If you wish to submit a data subjects rights request, make a complaint or report a suspected personal data breach, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer by email at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk.

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