British Council, National Research Foundation conduct training programme for researchers

The National Research Foundation of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in cooperation with the British Council in the UAE, have conducted a comprehensive interactive communications training programme for (20) student researchers from UAE universities, in the early stages of research, who wish to develop their oral and written academic skills in the field of publishing academic research in the English language. The programme entitled: "Researcher Connect", meaning "connection circle for the researcher", is comprised of a series of short interactive training modules and will commence Sunday(16/2/2014) and will run for five days. It aims to provide fresh graduates of Masters and PhD degree holders with the tools to help them establish national and international bodies, and to communicate with a broader public and with policy makers and to build a strong research cooperation on the international level and with the private sector through effective communication. The programme includes the following modules; "Know Your Audience" (KYA) which introduces learners to the "Researcher Connect" programme, "Better Presentations" (BP) which covers the techniques of effective presentation, "Writing for Publication Basics" (WfPb) which trains researchers in the art of academic writing, "Effective Emails" (EE) which focuses on the tone, formality and structure of business emails, "Professional Proposals" (PP) which introduces learners to business style English writing and "Abstracts" (ABS) which hands learners the tools to become critical readers and writers of abstract ideas. Dr. "Husam Sultan Al Ulama", Director of the Foundation said, "We are happy to organise this training course in collaboration with the "British Council" and we are confident that this workshop will benefit fresh postgraduate students from across leading universities in the UAE". The "British Council's" "Researcher Connect" training programme was developed to meet the requirements of modern researchers working in an increasingly multicultural and diverse environment. It has been built based on extensive global market research and has successfully run in "Europe", "North Africa" and "South Asia". The UAE is its latest addition. The programme received a large number of applications, (20) students were selected from the "UAE University", "Khalifa University", the "American University of Sharjah", the "British University in Dubai" and "Masdar Institute". "Marc Jessel", Country Director for the "British Counci" in the UAE said: "This project is in line with the "British Council's" objective to support research and innovation in education in the UAE. We expect it will be well received in the academic community in the UAE and we are excited to partner with the "National Research Foundation" in this endeavour". Dr. "Ahmed Alosi", "Research Programme's" manager at the Foundation added, "The selection process was highly competitive and was done through the Foundation's website. We are confident that on completion of the training, participants will be able to publish and present in English on a global platform more confidently."