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Research and knowledge exchange

Issue 88: Special ECR Symposium edition 2023

 

 

Dear Researchers, 

Welcome to the special Early Career Researcher Symposium edition of the Sussex Researcher. A huge thank you to everyone who got involved last month, from organising an event to entering the competitions and joining us in the audience!

It was exciting to hold the Research Image exhibition and the nail-biting Dragons’ Den final in the Student Centre- check out the brilliant winners below.

Other highlights included Keynotes from SSRP and Sussex Neuroscience, Researchers Careers Roundtable, and Research Culture Seed Funding Showcase from this year’s recipients. We'd love to hear from you if you attended any session on the Symposium day. All feedback welcome, good or bad, as we design next year's programme - .

Also in this edition, the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) Fund #8 is open to apply for sustainability research projects up to £20k!

Over the past year, we’ve had some exciting networking events, including the monthly Coffee Mornings, academic writing retreats and a writing weekend retreat in Brighton. Though we are at the stage of planning workshops for next academic year, there are plenty of career development resources available online, including career planning toolkit, Research Staff Career resources, and 1-1 coaching and mentoring support. We are also delighted to share that the cross-institutional virtual Speed Mentoring will be returning in November, so look out for it! 
 
Best wishes,

The Researcher Development Team,


 

 

Workshops & Events

Research staff are expected to engage in a minimum of 10 days’ professional development pro rata, per year

Research Staff Office online career resources

Workshops organised by other teams


Tuesday 10 October, 10:00 - 11:45

Wednesday 11 October, 10:00- 12:00

Thursday 12 October, 10:00- 11:45
Click here to view RSO events
 

News

A great start to the Early Career Researcher Symposium with Keynotes
 
As part of the Summer of Research held across campus, the Research Staff Office hosted the inaugural Early Career Researcher (ECR) Symposium on 6 July, bringing together early career researchers and research staff at Sussex to celebrate their successes.

The Symposium started with two keynotes from , deputy director of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP),and , co-director of Sussex Neuroscience.

Their talks explored how the work in these Centre of Excellence can empower ECRs, and introduced the potential for research impact and diverse career pathway opportunities.

We learned about inspiring and collaborative SSRP projects such as CLARITY, looking at ways to co-create and share novel approaches to climate adaptation in different locations, as well as hearing Early Career Research stories within SSRP-funded projects. If you are interested in finding out more, visit the SSRP early career stories webpage.

shared insightful career pathway suggestions and offered advice to researchers whatever stage they’re at, as follows:
  • Talk about your research. There are various channels that allow you to share your research such as blogs, public events, interest groups, schools and press releases. Explaining your research to different audiences gives you a chance to hone your communication skills.
  • Take on non-research roles such as organising seminars. Instead of focusing on research-only projects, take opportunities to gain experience that is not limited to academia.
  • Not all research is about IMPACT. We understand many funding opportunities expect to see research impact. However, this may not apply to every field to the same degree. Don’t let it discourage your research development.
 
The engaging Careers Roundtable offered valuable insights inside and outside of academia

During the Early Career Researcher Symposium, we welcomed a group of industry professionals and expert academics in our Researcher Careers Roundtable:
  • , Research Fellow in Sussex Drug Discovery Centre, ÅÝܽ¶ÌÊÓƵ
  • , Senior Data Scientist at AECOM
  • , Research Development Manager, ÅÝܽ¶ÌÊÓƵ
  • , Co-Director of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP)
  • Dr Katherine Parker-Hay, Publishing Development Officer for Open Library of Humanities
In a lively discussion with the audience they shared insights into their very different career journeys, and the diverse ways they have got to where they are now.

Highlighted advice to researchers :  

Develop and highlight transferable skills. Take time to consider which skills you currently possess that can be transferred to a new employer. Your research role allows plenty of opportunities to develop things like communication and organisational skills so ensure you highlight them in applications and interviews. These skills will be useful whether you stay in or move beyond academia.

Connect to other researchers and be proactive. Being an early researcher, networking with other postdocs at Sussex will help you increase your research visibility and profile. It may lead to potential interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities.

Stay as close as possible to your passion and be positive. The job market is always challenging and sometimes you don’t end up where you expected. Learn to accept the flow and find connection with research.

Roles beyond academia aren’t second class. There are various career pathways for researchers - while you may not stay in academia for the next step, you might find it surprising that your area of knowledge is a great skillset in a different role. You may even prefer it! Take advantage of any opportunities for work experience. The experience you gain in a ‘non-research’ role is part of your learning journey and will shape who you are.
 
Early Career Researchers win funding at Sussex's first Dragons' Den

Early career researchers from Schools across Sussex had the opportunity to pitch their research ideas and bid for funding at the University’s inaugural Dragons’ Den competition on 6 July.

The event, part of the ECR Symposium organised by the Doctoral School, saw seven finalists bid for up to £3,000 to fund their next steps in research. The programme also included training in bid-writing and communicating to a non-specialist audience.

Our ‘Dragons’ for the day, tasked with quizzing presenters after each talk, were Prof Debbie Keeling, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor Knowledge Exchange; Dr John Thompson, Deputy Director of SSRP; Dr Martin White, ECR lead in Engineering and Informatics; and Dr Lincoln Colling, ECR lead in Psychology.

It was a closely fought contest but Ulla McKnight (Law, Politics and Sociology) won out on the day, with a clear presentation and a research proposal that takes a creative and innovative approach. Ulla received £3,000 for a project combining AI and embroidery-based workshops to co-create speculative participatory research exploring the possible effects of sexual self-care practices with young cis-trans women of colour in Brighton. 

Eleanor Jayawant (Brighton & Sussex Medical School) came second, winning £1,500 for her pitch about her scoping project to identify novel therapeutic targets in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, conveying complex information particularly well to the non-specialist audience!

Psychology duo Su Morris and Amanda Ferrell took the £1,500 People’s Choice Award for their pitch for a large-scale survey aimed at identifying opportunities to improve PSHE education, which will hopefully set the groundwork for Amanda’s PhD project. Gemma Aellah (Brighton & Sussex Medical School), Laurence Bush (Engineering and Informatics) and Henry Dore (Engineering and Informatics) completed the line-up.

The abstracts from all of this year’s finalists can be found on the Dragons’ Den webpage and we’ll be adding recordings of their pitches soon. 
 
 
Research Image Competition Winner: Simon Williams (Media, Arts, and Humanities)

The Symposium Image Competition highlighted the variety and global reach of our research, and saw entries from ECRs across the disciplines at Sussex.

This year’s shortlist was judged by Maggie Symes (Research and Open Scholarship Librarian), Aline Amorim Graf (Research Staff Rep for Engineering and Informatics) and Susanna Broom (Head of the Doctoral School). You can view all the entries, and the captions that tell the story behind them, on our ECR Research Image webpage. 

Our 2023 winner is  from Media, Arts and Humanities. His image 'Intergenerational Storytelling Game in Action' (see the photo on the right), photographed by UG2 Media and Film student Adri Whittingham, depicts participants taking part in a storytelling game developed as part of Simon's research project Storytelling Connects.
Congratulations also go to Henry Dore (Engineering and Informatics), who took second place, and Ulla McKnight (Law, Politics and Sociology), who won the hotly contested People's Choice vote.
 
Showcasing research at the ECR Symposium

Recipients of this year’s Research Culture Seed Fund (RCSF) held a showcase of their projects over a networking lunch. The RCSF is part of a range of initiatives that the University has launched to foster a more creative, inclusive and collaborative research culture.

This year’s projects included a writing retreat, a journal reading group, training in interdisciplinary techniques, lived-experience participatory research, and artwork for an exciting ethno-graphic novel. For more details of the scheme see the Seed Fund webpage. The next round of RCSF funding will launch in Spring 2024.
 
 
Research Culture Awards Ceremony

The first Sussex's Summer of Research ended with a lunch and Awards Ceremony on 12th July in Bramber House to celebrate excellent research at Sussex and research with impact practice across campus. The Research Culture Awards were presented by Seb Oliver, the Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, and the Research with Impact Awards were presented by Debbie Keeling, the Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Knowledge Exchange. 

The winners of the Research Culture Awards were each awarded £1500 to use for training or a capability-building activity on an individual or group basis. The winners of the Research with Impact Awards each received up to £2000 to pursue the next stage of their impact plans and/or develop their impact capabilities.

Among the Research Culture Awardees, , Research Staff Rep for Life Sciences, took home the Early Career Research Leadership Award for fostering a collaborative research culture for Early Career Researchers.
 

Your Research & Careers

Call for researchers to act as buddies for local community leaders

The British Science Association is looking for researchers to join . The Community Buddy programme builds on the skills and experiences community organisers develop through our .

 The call is open until 11 August 2023.
 
The Brilliant Club- The Scholars Programme

Are you a PhD researcher or Early Career Researchers who wants to help young pupils realise their academic potential? 

Applications for the Scholars Programme are open for 23/24 until 20th August

 

Research Funding


If applying for funding, remember to check funders' eligibility criteria carefully and discuss the opportunity with your host institution/department prior to preparing any applications.

Do look at Research Development webpages for guidance around applications

For more information about ECR Fellowships, check out our new webpage: 
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/researchstaff/funding/fellowship-opportunities

For Coronavirus information for research grant applicants & grant holders check out: 

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/development/covid-19
The Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) Fund #8

This SSRP funding round ‘Research at the Mid-point of SDG Implementation’ aims to strengthen partnerships with impact, with particular emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, cross and trans-School cooperation. The call is open to researchers to develop sustainability research projects up to £20k!

Deadline for Applications: 27 September 2023
More information
 
Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2024

This funding opportunity is open to UK- based early-career researchers with the opportunity to develop and lead international and interdisciplinary research projects. Awards of 24 months in duration and up to £300,000 are available.

Deadline for Applications: 1 November 2023
Research Staff Office 
Falmer House 
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T (01273) (87)7979 
E researchstaffoffice@sussex.ac.uk

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