Cross-institutional peer support programme for neurodivergent postgraduate researchers 

This year we are launching a new cross-institutional peer support programme for postgraduate researchers who identify as neurodivergent. It forms part of the GW4 Connect initiative, a suite of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion activities developed by GW4 Alliance, which brings together researchers from the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. Previous programmes focused on providing targeted support for postgraduate researchers from the Global Majority and postgraduate researchers with parental responsibilities.  

This pilot programme will offer 16 participants the chance to work with neurodiversity experts and peers from across the region to create safe space for honest, free conversations outside institutional structures. Through peer-to-peer facilitated discussion, you will explore the strategies you and others have developed and the strengths you have identified as neurodivergent individuals. You will also explore the challenges and common experiences of neurodivergent postgraduate researchers when balancing study, research and daily life.  

Importantly, you will not be expected to arrive with the answers or solutions, but with an open mind and a willingness to engage with the group to co-create solutions, exchange practice and wisdom, and build a community around common experience. These discussions will be confidential unless the group mutually decide to share learnings more broadly. 

About the programme 

Starting in 2024, we will create a unique opportunity for peer-learning and network building for postgraduate researchers. Through a combination of 1:1 coaching sessions and peer-to-peer facilitated group discussion, we invite you to meet, share, support and learn from your peers building a network of support that you can take forward beyond the programme. 

Both coaching and peer-to-peer facilitated discussions are effective ways to bring people together who face a common interest or concern. To date there is uneven institutional support for neurodivergent postgraduate researchers. While the sector is quickly expanding its understanding of the impact of neurodivergence on the student experience, most of this effort is concentrated at the undergraduate level. As a result, a neurodivergent postgraduate researcher can be left to navigate a system that can create barriers to success, through attitudes, culture, environment, policy and processes, often through unconscious bias or lack of understanding or knowledge, while institutional support systems remain at odds with the expectations and milestones of postgraduate research.  

The facilitated peer support programme will aim to provide a safe, non-judgmental, mutually supportive space that enables you to explore these structural issues as a group and offers the opportunity for peer-to-peer learning to potentially develop new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.  

The programme is co-designed and co-facilitated by Asha Sahni, Founder and Chair of the University of Bristol Neurodiversity Staff Network and Lucy Smith, Founder of Inclusive Change, an organisation that champions greater understanding of neurodiversity in the workplace. Asha and Lucy will aim to create an environment that will cultivate the right time, space, and focus to explore together the issues that face the group collectively. They do not provide answers or tell you what to do. Instead, they encourage greater insight, self-awareness and offer tools for personal growth. 

Over the course of the 11-month programme (May 2024 – Mar 2025), you will be invited to: 

• Two, in-person facilitated workshops, at the beginning and end of the programme. 
• One, 45-minute individual intake meeting with personal profiling assessment.  
• Six, 90-minute online, facilitated, peer-to-peer discussion sessions. 

During these activities, and over the course of the programme, you can expect to: 

• Form support networks with programme participants. 
• Discuss challenges or barriers you face and explore strategies that can support you in achieving greater success.  
• Be able to articulate and engage your lived experiences as strengths. 
• Share and discuss commonalities, insights and actions that have emerged from the programme, with the option of feeding back to GW4 universities. 
• Understand how to advocate for change. 

GW4 Connect will create systems of support that advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education. We will provide a transformative experience creating strong bonds between participants that form the nucleus of a network for postgraduate researchers who identify as neurodivergent.  

We welcome applications from postgraduate researchers with diagnosis or who self-identify as neurodivergent. Asha and Lucy will aim to create an accessible space and will take time at the beginning of the programme to identify accessibility requirements.  

Should you wish us to accommodate adjustments please let us know.  

Time commitment and Eligibility 

Potential participants will need to commit to: 

• One, 45-minute, 1:1 introductory meeting (May 2024) 
• One, in-person full-day, introductory workshop (5 June 2024) 
• Six, online 90-minute peer-to-peer discussion sessions  
  • Session 1 (18 July 2024) 
  • Session 2 (11 September 2024) 
  • Session 3 (16 October 2024) 
  • Session 4 (14 November 2024) 
  • Session 5 (15 January 2025) 
  • Session 6 (19 February 2025) 
• One, in-person full day, final workshop (26 March 2025) 

Although the dates for the online, group sessions are set, we will work with the group to find the best, mutually agreed time of day to hold the sessions. Introductory meetings will be agreed between coaches and participants. 

Reasonable travel and accommodation will be provided to attend the in-person activities for those without institutional funding. Accessible venues have been chosen, but if there is something you need, please notify us in advance. Finally, we realise that your accessibility needs may impact your availability to join in-person sessions, which we do not want to be a barrier to participation. Please come speak to us about any adjustments, as we are keen to offer solutions to ensure accessibility. 

To be eligible, you will be: 

• A postgraduate researcher (PhD or Professional Doctorate) at a GW4 university past probation, but not in final year. 
• Agree to participate in all elements of the programme. 
• Have the approval of your supervisor to engage with the programme in full. 

How to apply 

Deadline for applications is 12pm on Wednesday, 27 March 2024, which can be completed here (application will open end of January 2024). The application is an online JISC survey. If you need another method of completing the application form, please email talentandskills@gw4.ac.uk and we will work with you to address your needs. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of professional service leads from GW4 universities to select participants. 

You can only apply to one of the GW4 Connect EDI programmes: 

1. A cross-institutional peer support programme for neurodivergent postgraduate researchers 
2. A cross-institutional peer support programme for postgraduate researchers with disabilities and long-term health conditions  

Applications submitted to both will be returned to the applicant for a decision. 

Each programme provides equal levels of facilitated and peer-to-peer support, but are delivered in distinct ways tailored to the needs of the specific community. To learn more about the programme for postgraduate researchers with disabilities and long-term health conditions, please click this link. 

If you have any questions about the programme, your eligibility, or how to apply, please feel free to contact the Talent and Skills Team (talentandskills@gw4.ac.uk).