SeedWISE: Enterprise training for women DPhil researchers

What will you gain from SeedWISE? 

• Explore enterprise thinking, concepts and competencies to expand your future horizons and career options
• Apply self-reflection and self-awareness to analyse and create a values and strengths-based lens to shape intentional choices and decision making
• Develop collaboration, networking and communication skills to frame interactions and understand audiences so that you feel confident in social situations and with employers and stakeholders
• Apply insights to clearly communicate the value you bring and your career interests and motivations
• Create actionable plans to create agency for your future

The Commitment

The impact of the programme depends on participation. To gain the full benefit of SeedWISE, participants must:

• Attend all three days
• Actively engage in group discussion and exercises
• Be willing to reflect honestly
• Support peers through structured feedback and reflection
   

Our Approach

SeedWISE is a reflective and participatory experience. It requires openness, engagement and willingness to contribute.

• Highly interactive with a different home group for each of the three days
• Structured in 60-minute focused sessions with breaks and reflection time
• Built on equitable participation principles inspired by Nancy Klein’s Time to Think and Lego® Serious Play methods
   

The days run from 0930–1630, allowing time for deep thinking without burnout.

SeedWISE is not about pushing you towards entrepreneurship or venture creation. It is about equipping you with entrepreneurial thinking and competencies (EntreComp) — self-reflection, initiative, opportunity recognition, stakeholder awareness — skills and knowledge that are transferable to whatever path you choose.

• Deep identity work alongside practical communication training
• Enterprise thinking framed as a transferable mindset, not business start-up training
• Clear distinction between long-term vision and short-term execution
• Structured group rotation to build broad peer connections across departments and foster a sense of community that reaches beyond the programme

How, when and where?

How: Apply for your place online by COB on Monday 23 March by filling in this short, online form

Selection will take place ASAP after this deadline and you will be notified of the outcome. 

If you have any queries, please contact Louisa at mpls.enterprise@mpls.ox.ac.uk

When and where: Careers Service, 56 Banbury Rd, Park Town, Oxford OX2 6PA