Support for research students earns Career Service award nomination

The Times Higher Education's (THE) Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers award recognises individuals, teams and institutions that develop innovative schemes to enhance and develop postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers' transferable skills. The award will be presented in London on 29 November.

The Service's Enterprise Summer School, run on behalf of LERU (League of European Universities), welcomed students from 19 universities in 11 countries to the UCL campus to take a 'smart cities' themed curriculum that taught them how research skills can be used in an entrepreneurial context. The climax of the week was a Dragons' Den style business pitch to a panel of experts and teams also produced video diaries and established new business networks. Several of the participants have since launched their own businesses. The event was also supported by UCL Advances and UCL Graduate School.

The Careers Service has also facilitated employer led training sessions for PhD students with top graduate recruiters teaching young researchers the business skills needed to convert their work to a commercial context.

A further key innovation that the Service has introduced for PhD students is a series of employer forums with senior staff from a range of leading employers - many of them UCL PhD graduates - offering advice on the work opportunities a PhD can provide. The forums covered the technology, economics, clinical research, policy, sustainability and global health sectors with speakers from a diverse selection of employers including Google, the Bank of England, GlaxoSmithKline, the House of Commons and the World Health Organisation.