In this guest blog, Lorraine Jackson, CMVM Research Support Officer, discusses what took place in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM) during Postdoc Appreciation Week and the ongoing work of the College Research Staff Committee.
To be honest I’m not a fan of Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) – it gives off vibes that these smart, hardworking, valuable individuals are only appreciated ONE week of the entire year, which absolutely isn’t true! The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine are very aware of how much postdocs bring to the science and wider community. This is evidenced by the nominations that were received, as part of the CMVM PAW Awards, from colleagues and students who are supported by and work alongside our postdocs. We had five award categories:
- Outstanding postdoc
- Scientific advancement
- Contribution to communities, knowledge exchange and public engagement
- Citizenship
- Student supervision and support.
The nominations were heart-warming to read and the impact, contribution and work, that this group of researchers is creating and involved in, is amazing. You can find out the results here. Well done to everyone nominated!
Our local postdoc societies and Institutes also held celebration events, symposiums, took part in organising a University wide quiz night, casual coffee meet ups, group photos (you can find more about this in the Staff Bulletin), social media spotlights, etc. during PAW. Although I’m not an admirer of the ‘week’ I get that it is vital, good and necessary to carve out time to acknowledge hard work, celebrate people and communicate appreciation…. which makes me a BIG ‘contradictory’ FAN of this national and local initiative!
CMVM Research Staff Committee
The CMVM Research Staff Committee exist to support postdocs and research staff by running initiatives to create better awareness of opportunities, widen knowledge of potential career paths, improve support, provide guidance and signposting. The committee decided to organise an inaugural CMVM Postdoc Symposium to help postdocs connect with each other (minimising the geographical gap between sites), collaborate with each other, CMVM facilities, external sponsors and University ‘services’ such as the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) and Edinburgh Innovations and find out about different career paths and options whether this is within academia or leaving academia. The symposium is taking place on Thursday 14th November 2024 at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Estate. You can find out more and register here.
We wish all CMVM (and UoE) postdocs a fantastic academic year ahead and thank you again for all that you do for the College and your local areas.
Remember there is lots of support out there for you including locally in your Centres, postdoc societies, via the Research Staff Champions, IAD Career Consultants, Research Professional (for funding opps), Researcher hub … the list goes on!
If you have any comments or ideas or you need support and don’t know where to go, please contact us on CMVMResearchStaff@ed.ac.uk and we will help!
