1: Introduction

We are pleased to invite you to express interest in being involved in the GROW gathering in October and also to seek further support from the GROW programme.

Please submit your expressions of interest as soon as possible and by midday Friday 8^th of September 2023.

Your contact details

2: Attendance in October

Are you able to attend the GROW gathering on 11 October 2023?  This is an in-person event to be held in London at Lift Islington from 09:30-15:30 hrs (TBC) for members of the previous 2 GROW cohorts and members of the current cohort along with senior researchers who have been involved in the programme.

3: Your Session Ideas

Would you like to host a session or conversation at the GROW gathering on 11 October 2023? Or do you have a suggestion for something you think should be covered?

Please briefly outline these ideas below.

3: Further support for alumni

Expression of interest

We are very pleased to share that we have  a small amount of funds, in the region of £10,000, remaining that we have allocated for our GROW Programme alumni. Based on feedback you have provided we are using this to support your further development and network building and we are inviting expressions of interest as set out below.

If we receive more applications than we can fund, we will allocate based on level of need and interest.

We are keen to offer further support to GROW alumni members in terms of helping you to:

• Make progress towards your professional goals?
• Be part of a network of early career mental health researchers who can continue to support each other
• Develop your professional networks, skills and experience to work across sectors and disciplines and make a difference through mental health research?

Please indicate if you would like to express interest in taking part in any of the following and very briefly explain how it can help you (and others) to achieve the GROW objectives above?

You can express interest in more than one option but be sure to rank the options and provide 1 or 2 sentences to explain the impact you anticipate each activity you select will have for you and how it meets the GROW objectives.

All activities would need to be completed by end of December 2023.

Further support Option 1 - Follow up coaching session

Additional follow up coaching session with one of the GROW programme coaches (e.g.: to focus on creating a development plan to sustain learning from the programme)

Further Support Option 2 - Online training

Online training provided by GROW programme coaching team (Anna Sanders, Clare Wakeham, Iveta Simera)

2a) Coaching skills for researchers to use in their roles (e.g.: as supervisors and line managers)

This half day online workshop will introduce you to coaching skills and a coaching model for you to use in your work setting.  Coaching skills are increasingly viewed as a critical tool for supervisors and those in leadership roles, and are valuable in a range of settings to build effective working relationships, empower others, problem-solve, and support delegation and team-working. This can also be an ideal way to enhance supervision of your research students and junior researcher colleagues, and useful evidence for funding bodies in relation to staff development and capacity-building. The workshop will include a demonstration and a structured opportunity to practice coaching skills.

2b) Designing personal development plans (e.g. to support grant proposals or research fellowships)

Finding time and energy to take charge of your own personal development planning can feel daunting.  Personal development plans are a key part of a good application for a grant or a new post, but are sometimes relegated to an afterthought. This 90 minute online workshop will  help you to identify your own strengths and development needs, consider how to frame these in relation to your research plans and present them as a coherent part of your applications. We'll cover how to prioritise your own personal development planning and ensure you develop the right set of skills and capabilities as well as how to make your applications stand out and demonstrate to funders and recruitment panels that you are serious about  personal development and fully capable of delivering your research project.

2c) Collaborative problem-solving for researchers

This 90 minute online workshop will introduce you to a collaborative problem-solving method based on action learning for you to use in your work setting.  Bring a challenge and work on it in a safe and supportive space, leave with new insights and practical ideas to address your challenge or progress your goal, as well as an approach to problem-solving to share and implement with peers and colleagues.  This can also be an ideal way to support the development of your team and junior researchers, and useful evidence for funding bodies.

2d) Prioritisation and planning for researchers

This 90 minute workshop will help you tackle one of the most commonly-encountered problems for researchers: how to manage time, workload and conflicting demands. We'll cover how time management techniques can be adapted and applied to a working life in which you may be highly driven and largely free to set your own timescales, but which nevertheless exposes you to significant time pressures. Drawing on experience of researchers, we'll consider such questions as: When should you say 'yes' and 'no', and to what? How do you prioritise demands that are all equally pressing? How do you achieve balance within your working life, between short and longer-term goals, and between work and the rest of your life?

Further Support Option 3 - Funding for an alumni activity / event

Would you like to propose an activity for alumni members that you will organise, such as networking meetings, writing retreats, training delivered by independent parties?