At the Midlands Mental Health & Neurosciences PhD Programme, we are committed to providing a training experience that is meaningful, personalised, and grounded in real student needs. Our approach brings together high-quality skills development, opportunities for collaboration, and space for reflection, all underpinned by the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF).

From your first days in the programme, you will use the 2025 RDF to identify your strengths, highlight areas for development, and create a tailored plan that evolves with you. This ensures your training journey is truly shaped around the skills you need, the feedback you give, and the career pathway you are working towards.

Everything we do is centred on the needs, ambitions, and wellbeing of our students. Training is continuously reviewed and refined using your feedback. We work closely with our partners, supervisors, and students to ensure the programme remains inclusive, engaging, and aligned with the challenges and opportunities of contemporary mental health and neurosciences research.

Our goal is simple:
To support you in becoming a confident, skilled, and impactful researcher, prepared for the next stage of your career and ready to make a difference.

We are continuously evolving our training provision to ensure it remains forward-thinking, structured, and fully responsive to student feedback.

Training will be organised into thematic modules, such as advanced methodologies, leadership and impact, public engagement, AI in research, and wellbeing. A blend of core and elective modules gives you the flexibility to tailor your learning while developing key competencies expected of all researchers.

Core Training Days

Throughout the year we deliver structured training days hosted across our university partners. These sessions are co-developed with our students and focus on practical research skills, methodological awareness, personal development, and professional practice. Recent topics have included publication, research ethics, qualitative and quantitative methods, mixed-methods design, reflexivity, co-production, and engaging with diverse communities.

Institution-Led Opportunities

You will also benefit from a rich programme of training delivered at each host university. This includes research methods workshops, governance and ethics training, skills development events, and faculty-led sessions designed to support you through every stage of your doctoral journey.

External and Specialist Training

Many students choose to undertake additional specialist training aligned to their projects and career ambitions. These may include advanced statistics, evidence synthesis programmes, clinical assessments, or domain-specific research methods. Supervisors and the DTP team will support you to identify what will be most valuable.

RDF-Informed Development

Your personalised development plan is revisited each year using the RDF. Regular check-ins allow you and your supervisors to identify progress, reflect on your training needs, and choose the opportunities that will support your growth most effectively.

Co-Produced With Our Students

Students help to shape the training themes, delivery format, and the activities we prioritise. Peer-led sessions, informal learning spaces, knowledge exchanges, and collaborative workshops will feature strongly throughout the programme.