What have we been up to?

Sandra Gardam
Australian Academy of Science
@sandra_gardam

Check out A word from the Chair to read about the Forum’s recent meeting with the ARC and progress towards Science Pathways 2018: Diversify your Thinking (block out 23–24 April 2018 in your diaries now!).

Visit the Kick-starting Collaboration pages to learn about how you can approach collaboration. Credit goes to the hard working EMCR Forum members present and past for driving this major project.

Events

It has been a busy time for EMCR events.

This year’s Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank Rethinking Food and Nutrition Science took place in Perth in July. The 60 EMCRs who attended had the opportunity to think deeply about what issues the field of nutrition is facing in Australia. The event was busy and dynamic, drawing on a systems approach to grapple with the complex ideas. The delegates continued their work after the event, developing discussion papers which will contribute to a decadal planning process to be launch soon by the National Committee for Nutrition. This was a great opportunity for EMCRs to have a real impact on important policy and strategic developments. We look forward to involving more EMCRs in these types of activities in the future.

Australia’s flagship icebreaker and research vessel, the Aurora Australis, was fittingly in dock on 13–15 September in Hobart when 70 EMCRs from around Australia met to share their Antarctic research across disciplines. The 2017 Theo Murphy Australian Frontiers of Science Symposium focused on the Antarctic Frontier: developing research in an extreme environment. The symposium covered the breadth of research occurring in Antarctica, the Southern Ocean and the sub Antarctic islands. It gave EMCRs the opportunity to meet and network with EMCRs from diverse disciplines.

I was exposed to research outside my own discipline with clear relevance for my own work; the small conference size allowed easy networking to pursue those possible collaborations.A Frontiers of Science Symposium delegate

News on future EMCR activities

We are making changes to the way we deliver activities to EMCRs. This will involve surveying you to find out what type of activities you would like to be involved in. It will also involve you actually being able to propose events and activities. Early in the new year we will be putting out a call to all EMCR Forum members to propose events or activities to be funded under the Theo Murphy Initiative. If your proposal is selected we will work closely with you to deliver the activity—we provide the hands to do the work, while you provide the ideas and expertise.

So get your thinking caps on! We will be particularly looking for activities with broad reach amongst EMCRs and ones that use innovative means to achieve this. We want activities which will have a positive impact on the careers of EMCRs around the country. Keep an eye out for more information soon.

Consultations

The NHMRC is undertaking a consultation on peer review under their new grant program. Have your say by making a submission. The EMCR Forum will also be making a submission on behalf of Australian EMCRs, so please contact us if you have views you would like us to include.