Skills Training Courses: Research Skills
Our research courses range from best practice for planning, designing and carrying out research to the use of specific research technology for the medical sciences. You can access other course categories from the Courses by topic page, and find supporting material on our Resources page. Can't find what you're looking for? Contact us.
Upcoming Research Skills courses
Links to online Statistics courses
Thursday, 01 October 2020 to Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 12am - 1am
MSD Skills are unable to provide our 'Introduction to statistics' training until we return to classroom teaching, but we have listed some alternative online statistics resources here.
Advancing Teaching and Learning Programme
Thursday, 08 October 2020 to Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 3pm - 6pm
Ready to develop your teaching skills at Oxford? The new Advancing Teaching and Learning Programme, starting Jan 2021 and leading to the award of Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, is now open to staff who meet the application criteria.
Links to Presentation skills training
Thursday, 10 December 2020 to Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 2pm - 5pm
Presentation skills training available elsewhere in the University
Writing a thesis - two part online course
Monday, 14 December 2020 to Sunday, 01 August 2021, 9am - 9am
This interactive online MSD Skills training course is most suitable for those in the final or second-last year of their DPhil who are preparing to write their thesis. As you are asked to start planning your thesis, early DPhil students are unlikely to benefit as much as those further along in their degree. This course complements the 'Viva preparation' course.
Writing a transfer report - two part online course
Monday, 14 December 2020 to Sunday, 01 August 2021, 9am - 9am
This interactive online MSD Skills training course is most suitable for first-year DPhil students in their second or third term who are preparing to write their transfer report. Those in their first term are likely to find many of the exercises are not yet helpful. It complements the 'Transfer of status' course.
Intro to R for Biologists
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 to Wednesday, 03 February 2021, 10am - 1pm
***This course is fully booked*** This interactive online MSD Skills training course course is aimed at MSD postgraduate research students and staff with minimal or no programming experience who want to create reproducible workflows for biological data analysis in R.
OTHER Research Skills Courses
This section lists other relevant research skills courses delivered elsewhere in the University and other MSD research skills courses running in other terms.
Sign up to the BDI Training list
Want to know about big data/health data science training events and opportunities at the BDI? Then join the Big Data Institute Training list, managed by the BDI Training and Development Officer, Sarah Laseke. Email Sarah to sign up at sarah.laseke@ndph.ox.ac.uk
The Thriving Researcher contains practical suggestions and links to a wealth of useful resources to support researchers and DPhil students, especially at the current time.
Workshops and events for Research Students and Staff, now available as a web page at https://www.careers.ox.ac.uk/careers-events-researchers/ and via the Researcher landing page (www.careers.ox.ac.uk/researchers) on the main Careers Service website. This page will regularly updated, and researchers are advised to check the page for the most recent version of the schedule.
We would also like to remind researchers that our online programme of bespoke careers support for research students and research staff continues www.careers.ox.ac.uk/researchers/
- Advice pages written for DPhil students and research staff
- More 1:1 advice appointments (by phone)
- Career Design and Development 3-workshop series; Insight into Academia etc; full timetable and booking links here www.careers.ox.ac.uk/careers-events-researchers/
- Inspiring profiles of researcher roles beyond academia via research-careers.org and how to join the team to grow your network
- Oxbridge Early Career Researcher blog earlycareerblog.blogspot.com/ (posts on resilience, transitions, effective CVs and interviewing for academia in particular, and beyond)
Academic English at the Language Centre - the term time courses help international students and staff improve their academic written and spoken communication. They are taught by specialists in Academic English to meet the needs of international students and staff at the University of Oxford.
Visit IT Learning Centre's LinkedIn Learning (previously known as Lynda.com) for a huge range of online video-based courses. It is available to use for free for all University members who have Single Sign On credentials.
Micron Advanced Microscopy - this five day classroom based MSD Skills training course is suitable for all postgraduate research students and postdoctoral early career researchers involved with bright field and fluorescence microscopy. This course runs in Michaelmas term.
Qualitative research made simple - this 3 hour classroom based course for Medical Sciences Division researchers will teach you how to synthesise qualitative research findings. This course is next scheduled to run in Trinity Term.
Simulating data to improve your research - this classroom based MSD Skills training course consists of two hour sessions on two separate days. It is suitable for MSD researchers with basic statistical knowledge wanting to learn how to simulate experimental data and then apply standard statistical tests.
Computational biochemistry - this three day classroom based MSD Skills training course suitable for all postgraduate research students and early career researchers wanting to gain the practical skills needed for effective computational biochemistry.
Electron cryo microscopy in structural biology - This MSD Skills training course runs over five full consecutive days and is suitable for all postgraduate research students and postdoctoral early career researchers using or planning to use cryo-EM. This course runs in Michaelmas Term.
How and why to undertake a systematic review - this half day classroom based MSD Skills course runs in Trinity Term and is suitable for all postgraduate research students (especially recommended for years 1 and 2) and early career researchers wanting to understand the key principles of a systematic review and the basic principles of meta-analysis.
Scientific computing in MATLAB - this six week online MSD Skills training course runs in Trinity Term is suitable for all postgraduate research students and early career researchers wanting to understand MATLAB programming language, and its use in data analysis. numerical calculus, linear algebra and the solution of ODEs.
X-Ray Crystallography - this five day computing lab and classroom based MSD Skills training course runs in Trinity Term and is suitable for all postgraduate research students and early career researchers wanting to understand the theory underpinning crystallographic methods and apply these to their own research.