Doctoral Development Manager
Lisa Thompson
Doctoral Development Manager
Lisa Thompson is the Doctoral Development Manager in the Doctoral College since 2017. She graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a BA (Hons) in Sociology and has a Masters in Human Rights Law (LLM) from QUB and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Ulster University. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Lisa leads the development and delivery of the Researcher Development Programme for PhD Researchers which she established in 2017. The Programme aims to support the professional and personal development of PhD Researchers enhancing and developing skills relating to their PhD journey as well as those that will support them in their life beyond the PhD, in both academic and non-academic contexts.
In addition to the Researcher Development Programme, Lisa established the Festival of PhD Research and Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition at Ulster University (2018) which has significantly enhanced the PhD learning experience.
Lisa also leads the Supervisor Development Programme for PhD Supervisors at Ulster and is involved with the current UKRI funded project on the Next Generation of Research Supervision (RSVP).
In 2025, she was awarded an Ulster Excellence Fellowship Award for Learning Support for her work with the PhD Researchers.
Externally, Lisa was shortlisted for the Impact, Communication and Engagement (ICE) Award with Vitae for ‘Impact on Research Culture Through Researcher Development’ in 2023. She is actively involved with Vitae through the Mentoring Circles Steering Group, the Working Group on the Annual International Conference and an Invited Speaker. She has also been on the judging panel on the national 3MT® competition.
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