Early Career Researchers Hub   :   ECR Training and Development

Welcome to this month's ECR Newsletter where you will find key information on the following:-

Spotlight On ...

ECR Researcher Development Programme

Learning and Development Opportunities: University of Exeter and Beyond

Research Grants, Funding & Competitions

Research Culture

Research & Researcher Networks

Research & Researcher Blogs

Organising an Event & Need Help?

Health, Wellbeing & Support

Please direct any questions you may have to researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.

Previous copies of Newsletters can be viewed by clicking here. If you have something that you'd like to share in future Newsletters, click here for copy deadline dates as well as submission guidelines.

This very successful interactive workshop, the organisation of which was led by Dr Rebekkah Bernheim and funded through this year’s Researcher-Led Initiative Awards, was an interdisciplinary project organised by ECRs from the Health and Community Sciences ECRN with support from colleagues from Arts and Culture University of Exeter.

This activity brought together postgraduate students and ECRs for a full-day event at St Luke’s Campus. Over the course of the day, attendees had the opportunity to network, try their hand at creative activities and learn from researchers, artists, and others with experience facilitating artist–researcher collaborations. The objectives of this workhop were to raise awareness about Art and Culture, inspiring ECRs/PGRs to communicate their research creatively to a wide audience, to develop their networks, reflect on their work using creative practices and consider strategies for helping others connect with their work.  If you are interested in joining the Health and Community Sciences ECR Network contact Dr Rebekkah Bernheim, Dr Rebecca Whear or Dr Sian de Bell or sign up by joining here.

The Researcher Development Core Training Programme for ECRs, is a development programme specifically designed for Early Career Research staff (i.e. staff on research contracts grades E to G), across all campuses of the University of Exeter.

The Core ECR Programme has reached a natural pause for August, but the Focus Space online group will continue to run every Monday and Thursday 10 am - 12.30 pm, along with the opportunity to book career coaching appointments for September onwards.

Current details for the autumn/winter ECR Core Programme can be found here.  Please bookmark and remember to revisit this page - more learning activities will continue to be aded over the next few weeks.

Unsure of your future career direction either within Academia or beyond Academia? Kenneth Howgill, (Careers Coach for Researcher Development and Research Culture), is available to offer 1:2:1 Career coaching appointments for ECRs.  50 minute online appointments are available for you to book on by clicking here.

Kenneth can offer advice and discuss how to manage and plan your career and has timeslots in August and through to October.  Should you wish to meet him before then, please contact ResearcherDevelopment@exeter.ac.uk.
 

Deadline : Thursday 24 August 2023

Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium (DSDS23) is a national conference that is hosted by Cranfield University and is co-sponsored by AWE and Dstl. This year it is taking place on 8 - 9 November 2023 (10 am - 4 pm) at the STEAM Museum in Swindon. The aim of the event is to showcase the work of research students and early career researchers in the areas of defence and security, covering the social sciences as well as the technical and scientific aspects of defence and security. A selection of outputs from last year’s symposium can be viewed in the online DSDS22 Collection.

The final date for submission of abstracts is 24 August 2023 and the symposium is free to attend for contributors, students and supervisors.

Save the Date!
Tuesday 12 September 2023 - Bath.

Please note: you will need to be a member of the British Academy Early Career Network to apply for this opportunity. Registration is quick and free. Sign up here.

Join us at our next Hub-wide networking event for the British Academy Early Career Researcher South West hub. This is an opportunity for you to reconnect with your peers, reflect on the networks’ activities to date and discuss how you would like the network to develop going forward. Included in the day will be opportunities to join facilitated discussions relevant to your areas of research to help you form new collaborative projects and get support with upcoming BA funding opportunities to get those projects started. More details will follow shortly.

The new dates of the PGR supervision training have now been released.

These initial training courses, which will take place online, are for all new and existing PGR supervisors who have not attended any training in the last two years.

The sessions are:

• Supporting PGR development and monitoring progress - Wednesday 27 September (1 pm - 3 pm).
• Responding to student needs and having challenging conversations - Friday 6 October (1 pm - 3 pm).
• Giving feedback - Wednesday 11 October (1 pm - 2.30 pm)

If you have any questions regarding these sessions, please contact Dr Tian Yan at t.yan@exeter.ac.uk.

We would like to encourage anyone with line management responsibilities or a leadership role (band G and above) to undertake this training. It was developed by University of Exeter academics and Occupational Health specialists to help you to have conversations about mental wellbeing and recognise symptoms of poor mental health. It will also provide an overview of your legal responsibilities and tools to help you to support your team.

The Department of Public Health and Sports Science, in connection with the Regional Engagement Team, are conducting a scoping project about the potential for a programme evaluation training whereby staff from local voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) join postgraduate students (PGRs) and early career researchers (ECRs) to learn, as equal partners, programme evaluation skills.

The survey, for PGRs and ECRs, has 20 questions (of which very few ask you to provide text answers) and should take less than 10 minutes to complete. There is no compensation for completing the survey, but you can choose to enter a draw for a £25 Amazon voucher.  Please complete the survey as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact Dreolin Fleischer.

Please note: you will need to be a member of the British Academy Early Career Network to apply for this opportunity. Registration is quick and free. Sign up here.

1.  Seed Funding Scheme
Call opens : Tuesday 1 August 2023.
Closes : Monday 25 September 2023

The aim of this scheme will be to create and support new cross-sector research partnerships and offer the funding to support ECR career development in the South West. These small awards (of up to £3K) will support the direct costs associated with activities that support new research, the development of new stakeholder relationships, broadening knowledge of a sector, future career options or accessing resources and facilities. Please note, this funding stream will not support events or workshops, which should be funded via the Development Fund (details below). More information and application form will be forthcoming. For any questions:  talentandskills@gw4.ac.uk.

2.  Development Fund (Rolling call).
The Development fund is a continuation of the Early Career Researcher led events fund that has seen 9 events held by and for ECRs in the South West from October 2022 to June 2023. It provides the opportunity for ECRs to hold an event, roundtable, meeting or training activity, which promotes networking, collaboration, knowledge sharing or develops skills throughout the region, and can be extended to the wider ECR network if appropriate. ECRs can claim a total of £3000 towards their activities which will need to be paid for by their institution and then expensed back to the BA. For more information contact the South West Hub team at talentandskills@gw4.ac.uk.

Opens : Wednesday 6 September 2023
Deadline: Wednesday 1 November 2023

In partnership with The British Academy, The Royal Academy of Engineering and The Royal Society (‘the Academies’) and with generous support from the Leverhulme Trust, the APEX award (Academies Partnership in Supporting Excellence in Cross-disciplinary research award) scheme offers established independent researchers, with a strong track record in their respective area, an exciting opportunity to pursue genuine interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research to benefit wider society.

Do you care that your research is assessed fairly, in its entirety and not based on narrow measures such as where you have published or how many times you have been cited? 

The responsible use of metrics in academic assessment forms part of our work to ensure a fair and positive research culture, something which the sector is increasingly placing importance on: REF 2028 will place 25% of the assessment on people, culture and environment.

Responsible metrics celebrates all research and research outputs and looks beyond blunt quantitative measures to assess quality. As a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, we are looking for researchers to join our Responsible Metrics Champions Group, especially in departments not currently represented, to help ensure that this important agenda translates into our own university policy and practice. 

Those in the earlier stages of their research career have the most to gain from responsible metrics, so we’re keen to ensure that we have PGRs and ECRs in the group. If you’d like to find out more, or think you may be interested in joining the group, please contact Becky Euesden r.s.euesden@exeter.ac.uk

Research Culture is a shared endeavour and we want to foster a positive and thriving culture for everyone.

We'd love you to join the conversation on our Research Culture Viva Exchange (Yammer) Group. Here you can share best practice and relevant events, ask questions and give feedback and ideas as to how we can improve our research culture broadly - or more specifically in relation to our Research Culture SharePoint site.

Tuesday 22 August 2023 (12 noon - 4.30 pm).

Global Queer and Trans Histories Beyond Academia is a hybrid workshop taking place at the University of Glasgow on Tuesday 22 August 2023, 12-4.30pm. It brings together researchers—in particular early career researchers—and community educators, with a view to producing a collectively authored roadmap for collaboration. How can historians and community educators and activists work together to challenge prejudice, create community, and foster bright queer and trans futures?

Tuesday 5 September 2023 (3 pm - 4 pm) - Online

This Welcome Session provides an opportunity for you to learn more about the Network, meet and engage with other Early Career Researchers and address any questions or concerns you have about the Network. We are also keen to learn more about your motivations for joining the Network and your expectations from the Network.

Wednesday 27 September 2023 (10 am - 10 pm)
​Sandy Park, Exeter

We are happy to announce that registration for Exeter Brain’s Networking event on Wednesday 27 September 2023 is now open.

Please note that applications to give a Flash Talk or Research Hustings are invited on the registration form (see below button). We particularly encourage flash talks from new members of the network, and these should be 3 minutes long with time for 2 minutes of questions.

For the research hustings, we encourage applications from individuals or groups of individuals who have an idea for a research project or grant proposal. These talks should be 10 minutes long with time for 5 minutes of questions and will be accompanied by a separate poster presentation discussion on the proposed research.

We are looking for PhD and Early Career researchers to contribute to Exeter’s Research & Innovation blog and write posts that are based on three questions about your work.  If you would like to find out more please email digitalteam@exeter.ac.uk.

We are currently updating and developing the ECR Hub webpages so that we can improve the information and support we provide you. Our aim is to make the Hub a one-stop-shop to help reduce the time you spend searching for key information and support, along with streamlining our communications to you.

If you're organising an event and don't know where to start, take a look at the Corporate Events webpage where you will find lots of useful information and advice including an Events Planning Toolkit!  If you would like to contact the Events Team for further advice email eventenquiries@exeter.ac.uk.

Mindfulness is an evidence-based way to help with anxiety, stress and low mood.

Free mindfulness sessions are provided by an experienced clinical team at our own Mood Disorders Centre. To find out more, please visit mindfulness webpage. 

The Buddhist Chaplain also offers free weekly, lunchtime mindful meditation sessions. Email StaffLife@exeter.ac.uk to join the mailing list.

Find out how the University can support Early Career Researchers.  The page includes support from the University, Spectrum.Life as well as a list of networks to support staff wellbeing.