Over 30 researcher development professionals from the UK and beyond gathered in Bristol on 24 and 25 June for the 2019 GTA Developers' Forum — an annual opportunity to discuss the support and development opportunities available to graduate teaching assistants (also known as doctoral teachers).

Co-organised by Dr. Conny Lippert of the Bristol Doctoral College and Sarah Moore of the University of Sheffield, and hosted for the first time by the Bristol Doctoral College, the two-day event saw attendees share practice on topics including programme development, peer-learning and wellbeing.

Doctoral teachers also made direct contributions by sharing their own perspectives on the programmes and initiatives they had engaged with or had helped to develop.

Dr Jessica Hancock, a University of London lecturer who attended the event, said: "One of the most helpful aspects of the forum was meeting other people from different institutions who are just as passionate about supporting PhD researchers who teach.

"We're working in slightly different contexts, but are facing very similar issues — such as what support is needed, whether it should be interdisciplinary or not, how to develop teaching identities — so it was particularly useful to share ideas, approaches and good practice, and work together to try and jointly come up with solutions."

The GTA Developers' Forum was set up in 2016 as a group for researcher development professionals with a particular interest in supporting the development of postgraduate research students who teach. Previous host venues have included the University of Stirling and (jointly) the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh.