Empowering PhD Researchers with Project Management Skills:

Doing a PhD obviously requires development of technical skills regardless of your area of study. It also demands skills relating to managing time, budgets, resources, and professional relationships, but these can be easily overlooked. These skills all fall under Project Management and, since a PhD is one big project, over the past six months I went about organising a certified PM course for PhD researchers within the AAPS CDT.

The steps were relatively simple:

1. Gauge the level of interest from my fellow researchers (lots of interest!)
2. Identify a provider of PM training – we went with Fistral (who, spoiler, were fantastic!) – and start conversations with them to get cost estimates
3. Apply for funding from the AAPS CDT
4. Confirm suitable dates with Fistral
5. Advertise for PhD researchers to sign up!

This process culminated in an oversubscribed course, which ran for three intense days in person 19th-21st March, with one online day on the 1st April to go over the exam style, example questions, and final pieces of material.

We covered a huge amount of content, helpful both for our PhDs and for any role we find ourselves in in the future, for example:

• PM fundamentals, incl. defining scope, stakeholder management, team development
• Predictive PM, incl. time and cost estimation techniques and budgeting, project planning methodologies, accounting for variability
• Agile and Adaptive frameworks
• Risk identification and management
• Business analysis frameworks

Now we’ve had the training, it’s over to us to take the globally recognised Project Management Institute (PMI) Certificate Associated in Project Management (CAPM) exam!

I personally will be using these techniques to ensure the final year of my PhD stays on track and crucially will know that I have the tools available to adapt when things inevitably change! I then hope I will be in a position after my PhD where I can continue to help guide and shape projects, in which case all of this knowledge will be invaluable.

Good luck to all attendees, both for the exam and for developing your PM skills in your PhDs and the future! A huge thank you goes to Fistral for providing an excellent course, and to AAPS CDT for funding the opportunity.