I can’t resist the temptation to say that EVERY week is Postdoc Appreciation Week in the IAD, but this week we’re joining in with a wider celebration of our research staff community. Our activities this week are focused in one of our Colleges, as they are led by the Head of Early Career Researcher Experience for Edinburgh Medical School, Dr Gillian Gray.
Today was the first of a week of pop up road shows across the various campuses our Medical School is located at. After today’s kick off in the central campus, the banners, stickers and postdoc allies are travelling to…
Tues 17th Sept Foyer, QMRI, LF 12.00-14.00.
Wed 18th Sept Nucleus, IGMM, 12.00-14.00.
Thurs 19th Sept, Break Out Area, SCRM, LF 13.00-15.00
The conversations today were wide-ranging. I talked to a technician about our new career development support guide developed as part of our Technicians’ Commitment; to several postdocs about getting training and accreditation for their teaching experience through our various programmes; spoke to someone thinking about a fellowship about how important it was to keep looking at the funders’ advice to applicants as things change all the time (for example with the UKRI FLF scheme) and connected a postdoc society trying to improve induction for new staff with our team at IAD so we can support them.
I also met colleagues from our Research Support Office, who had a stream of people wanting to talk about funding opportunities; with someone from our clinical training side and (best of all) got to meet a few more of the 2000 research staff here at Edinburgh.
Postdoc Appreciation Week is particularly timely this year. At the moment, many of my colleagues from across the UK are in Birmingham (lucky people) at the national researcher development conference (you can follow the highlights via twitter using #vitae19). Last Friday was the 2nd National Postdoc Conference on Shaping Postdoc Culture and last Thursday saw the launch of the new Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. Busy times.
Despite all this action I’m sure that many of our research staff won’t be aware of any of the fantastic things happening at the moment. Our greatest challenge is not supporting them, but reaching them and connecting them with the wide range of support here. It’s a challenge shared by all the colleagues I have in other institutions and one that the Concordat highlights clearly.
If you’re a researcher and happen to find this during Postdoc Appreciation Week, go along to one of the roadshows mentioned above. If that has passed, take a look at our website and come to a workshop, read one of our online resources or get in touch with us. Remember, it’s always Postdoc Appreciation Week in the IAD…
(Postdoc Appreciation Week)
