UiB Ferd Courses
UiB Ferd supports Early-Stage Researchers with a variety of courses. Below is a brief overview. Course details, including time and location, will be announced in UiB's calendar and in Ferd Newsletter.
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Courses spring 2025
Courses offered spring 2025. Read more about the courses below:
- Brainbugs: A coping course for those who struggle with negative thoughts and for those who want to learn more about how psychology affects us in everyday life.
- Building your academic CV
- Proposal writing for dummies
Boost your career by building international networks
Target group: This course is developed for phds, postdocs and early stage researchers at UiB. Research support staff is also welcome to participate.
Aim of the course:
- Knowledge about relevant opportunities for funding, mobility, and networking.
- Knowledge about how to prepare for a stay abroad and where to find assistance.
- Insight into how and why to build your own international networks.
- Insight into different ways of engaging internationally and the various challenges you might face.
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
Brainbugs
Target group: PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, researchers and associate professors
Aim of the course: A coping course for those who struggle with negative thoughts and for those who want to learn more about how psychology affects us in everyday life. (Link to the last course.)
Language: English (And in Norwegian: Tankevirus).
Next course: Spring 2025
Building your academic CV
Target group: This course is developed for phds, postdocs and early stage researchers at UiB. Research support staff is also welcome to participate.
Aim of the course:
- Introduction to an academic CV and why it is important.
- Review of the main components of a research CV: Review of the various main parts of a research CV, including research results, external funding, mobility, networking and profiling.
- CV writing tips: Tips and techniques for writing a convincing CV.
- Useful resources at UiB: A review of where and how you can use UiB's resources to support your career and CV building.
- Using AI in CVs: Some practical tips on how you can use AI to improve your CV.
Practical session and discussion in groups: Participants will have the opportunity to reflect and exchange experiences with colleagues at the same career stage.
Language: English
Next course: Spring 2025
Career competence and career awereness
Target group: PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows
Aim of the course: Increase understanding of the concepts of careers and career awareness, reflect on your own career opportunities and identify personal motivational factors. Schein's Careers Anchors will also be used for identifying your own preferences.
(Link to course description.)
Language: English
Next course: 28.11.24 (Link to calandar announcement.)
Communication course: Getting your research into the media: How to work with journalists and pitch your story
Target group: Academic staff
Course content:
- Different types of media you can engage to share your work
- Best practices for working with journalists
- How to prepare for a media interview
- How to communicate with different audiences
- Pitching exercises with templates (Link to the last course.)
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
Communication course: How to become a media darling.
Target group: Academic staff
Aim of the course: A theoretical and practical introduction to media contact.(Link to last course.)
Language: Norwegian
Next course: Not planned
Find the Magic of Social Writing
Target group: Academic staff
Content: This seminar will tackle the challenges and opportunities that come with writing alongside/with others, whether socially as friends and colleagues, or scientifically as co-authors, etc. We will discuss how you can strengthen your local, national and international research networks through innovative ways of approaching your writing process.
Language: English
Next course: 31.10.24 (Link to course.)
How to create a solid elevator pitch for job opportunities or academic advancement
Target group: Postdoctoral fellows, researchers and associate professors
Aim of the course: Being able to pitch yourself and your research in different settings. (Link to last course.)
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
How to improve your academic writing and presentation skills in English
Target group: PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, researchers and associate professors
Aim of the course: To give knowledge and skills relating to academic writing and presentations in English that enable them to communicate easily, but elegantly, in an academic context.
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
How to sell your skills to a non-academic audience and how to develop a non-academic CV
Target group: PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows
Aim of the course: An introduction to the concept of translator competence — how to make external audiences understand what competence UIB candidates possess. Contribute towards better mastery when writing CVs, interview situations, self-presentation/pitching and applying for jobs, etc.
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
Optimize your research potential through innovation competencies
Target group: Suitable for researchers who want to boost their innovation potential to increase the impact of their research.
Aim of the course: course will make you reflect on how to make your research more relevant to society, and what "innovation" in academia actually means. How do you increase your innovation potential, and how do you communicate innovation in project applications for funding? The course also covers ways to collaborate with partners outside academia, which is often a prerequisite for successful innovation. (Link to last course.)
Language: English
Next course: Spring 2025
Project Management for Academics
Target group: All employees wanting to learn more about project management methods and research projects.
Aim of the course: Knowing how a project is structured and how different project types can vary along different dimensions is essential for understanding the concept of project management.
- The similarities and differences between "classic" and research project management.
- How to conceptualize a research project and what kind of project management it requires.
- Elevated risk levels in research projects and strategies for minimizing these risks.
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
Proposal writing for dummies
Target group: PhDs, postdoctoral fellows, researchers and associate professors
Aim of the course: This course is designed to equip young UiB researchers with the skills necessary to write effective and compelling research proposals, for funding agencies such as the Norwegian Research Council and the EU. The course will provide you with tips for writing research proposals, as well as hands-on training.(Link to last course.)
Language: English
Next course: Spring 2025
Programme for Research Management at UiB
Target group: Anyone with responsibility for research groups or research projects who wants to become more confident in their own role.
Aim of the course:
- Offer training and advice that strengthens the participants' development in the role of group leader
- Increase awareness and knowledge of how to build good teams
- Facilitate the development of interdisciplinary networks within UiB
(Link to last course - only in Norwegian).
Language: Norwegian
Next course: Autumn 25
Self-management and time management
Target group: PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, researchers and associate professors
Aim of the course: To provide information on how to develop healthy work habits that can help us to manage our own time, and not least our feelings about time, our motivation and our focus. Tips will also be provided about specific tools that can support us in our development of good habits.
Language: English
Next course: Not planned
The how and why of UiB - and why it matters to you
Target group: PhDs, postdoctoral fellows, researchers and associate professors
Aim of the course: Participants will be able to engage in a debate on how to best facilitate high quality and high international visibility of UiB’s research and education, having gained the following learning outcomes:
- Knowledge of the university’s strategy and central national policy initiatives, as well as UiB organization and steering processes, and in particular, the various sources that constitute the knowledge basis for governance.
- Familiarization with the main policy instruments, both external and internal, that set objectives and goals for the university and its academic staff.
- An overview of decision-making bodies and decision processes of particular importance at the university level.
- An overview of relevant institutional assessment tools, as well as selected open international, national and local sources of information and data on institutional and group performance.
Language: English
Next course: Autumn 2025
Courses offered by the University Library (UB)
UB offers a variety of courses and workshops in academic skills. Here is a link to an overview of courses and other research support activities offered by UB.
UiB Opp courses
The Research Department also provides a comprehensive range of courses and activities tailored for early-career researchers. In addition to developing courses specifically for UiB Ferd, they also design courses for other target groups. UiB Opp is a competence programme focused on external funding related to research, education, and innovation, aimed at employees seeking to enhance their skills in research support or external funding. Read more about UiB Opp here (only available in Norwegian).
Do you have suggestions for other relevant courses?
UiB Ferd welcomes suggestions for relevant courses, both those offered by UiB and external providers, for our target group. Please send your recommendations to ferd@uib.no