LA³NET fellows met in Liverpool for an intense training week
The LA³NET fellows descended on Liverpool from their host countries on 17thMarch taking advantage to meet up ahead of the rigorous but unknown schedule that lay before them. The School kicked off at the University of Liverpool’s Foresight Centre with a fun exercise of paired introductions. This enabled the fellows to get to know one another better and was also a first introduction to presentation techniques. The remainder of the day was taken up with sessions on presentation skills and an introduction to project management delivered by Prof. Carsten P. Welsch, LA³NET coordinator. This included the fellows applying these principles to their own projects by carrying out stakeholder analyses and setting deliverables and milestones. A guided tour of Liverpool completed the day.
The second day started with invited speakers from industry and academia talking about experiences in their chosen career. John Schofield from Lissajous Nucleonics Ltd talked about his adventures working in the nuclear industry. This was contrasted with the alternative pathway of academia described by Prof. Peter Butler from the University of Liverpool’s Physics Department.
Next the team was split into groups of five and each team was tasked with using the project management tools taught in the School to develop a grant application for an outreach event with a budget of £10,000. The afternoon was taken up with an interactive session on scientific writing delivered by Matthew Chalmers.
Dr. Rosa Letizia from Lancaster University joined Prof. Welsch, as well as Helen Williams and Dr. Rob Ashworth from the EU Project T.E.A.M. to guide the three groups in improving presentation skills. Each fellow delivered a pre-prepared presentation of their project which was videoed and played back for self-analysis and critical analysis.
After lunch the fellows visited Sci-Tech Daresbury for a presentation about the Cockcroft Institute by Prof. Swapan Chattopadhyay, followed by a tour kindly provided by our ASTeC colleagues of the laboratories, the accelerator facilities and the Electron Beam Test Facility (EBTF) under construction at the Daresbury site. The evening bonding event was the white knuckle LA³NET Grand Prix at Speedkarting, Warrington.
On Thursday the LA³NET fellows applied the skills gained in the first 3 days of the School to develop a robust project plan as a bid for outreach funding. Each of the three teams prepared a 1,500 word proposal and supporting presentation by the end of the day. This was interspersed with talks on advanced aspects of project management delivered by Fraser Robertson of Fistral Training. A formal dinner was laid on in the evening at the Alma de Cuba in Liverpool.
On Friday, Dr. Dave Joss gave a presentation of the history of physics at the University of Liverpool and a guide to the peer review process. Afterwards, the fellows faced their final challenge of the week to present their proposals for the outreach activity and to peer review each other’s submissions and vote for the winning bid.