Marcella Carragher, Sarah Hayes, Prue Atkins, Clarice Tang, Hannah Schurholz and Leah Kivivali
ECR Network Committee, La Trobe University
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/researchers/ecr-network
We all know that life as an early-career researcher (ECR) can be demanding and stressful: you are finding your feet as an independent researcher whilst juggling teaching, administration and service duties. Not to mention the pressure to publish and to attract external funding. For many of us, there may be few opportunities to meet with academics who are in the same career stage as ourselves. Being part of an active research community is vital and connecting with other ECRs, even those who come from very different disciplines, can help us to keep up-to-date with institute-specific information. Being part of a local research community helps to sustain momentum in our own research plans, to build resilience in learning from the experiences of other researchers, and to build a wide network of potential collaborators. But what happens if your institution has no such existing network that you can access?
You start your own!
We are the La Trobe University Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network Committee, a small but committed group of volunteer ECRs who aim to promote research excellence at our institution through a culture of sharing and peer support.
La Trobe University is a multi-campus institution with several hundred ECRs working across disciplines, colleges and campuses. The committee began in 2015 with the aim of promoting networking opportunities for ECRs, regardless of their discipline background or location. From this, the inaugural ECR networking conference was born—attracting ECRs from across the university who were eager to meet other researchers within the same career stage.
The ECR population is typically a transient one—moving between institutions for the next postdoctoral position or opportunity to work towards a tenured position. Thus, despite the success of the annual conference, it was not sufficient in creating a sustainable community of ECRs where support, information and advice could be accessed and shared throughout the year. The committee launched a new initiative in 2017: a monthly Coffee Club with the promise of free barista-made coffee to convince ECRs to leave their desks for 30-60 minutes.
The annual conference is now one event in a series of continued networking opportunities available to ECRs at La Trobe. On 25 September, the La Trobe University ECR Network Committee hosted its third annual networking conference on the grounds of the Melbourne campus, in the newly renovated John Scott Meeting House.
The conference program was designed by ECRs for ECRs who hail from a wide range of disciplines. They say that good things come in pairs: our program included two world renowned keynote speakers, two panels, two lightning presentation rounds and, ahem, one networking activity [Ed. two half networking activities?].
Our keynote speakers presented two very different career trajectories that can follow a PhD. The morning keynote speech was delivered by Dr Mark Eccleston (Manager, Heritage Operations, Office of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria) who shared his career trajectory through academia and into government. He spoke about the pros and cons of being an academic within a non-academic setting, giving a refreshingly honest account of his experiences to date.
Our afternoon keynote speaker was Dr Misty Jenkins (laboratory head at the Walter Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, University of Melbourne), who not only made complex biomedical science easy to access, but also gave career advice ranging from finding a niche area of research to leadership development. Both keynote speakers were engaging, inspiring and generous in sharing their lessons learnt and career advice.
The program also gave delegates a rare opportunity to interrogate some very busy La Trobe executives who attended as part of the Senior Management Panel. Each member of the panel spoke about their views on how the university currently supports ECRs, and offered advice and insights from their own experiences of being an ECR. Delegates took the opportunity to question the panel regarding specific career options.
The second panel took a more philosophical approach—members of the Futurist Panel were invited to reflect and speculate on the changing landscape of research and implications for ECRs who wish to carve out an academic career. Three La Trobe staff members who have very different roles and experiences offered advice and support for what the next five to ten years of being a researcher might entail. The discussion that was generated felt like a tailored career advice session, including topics such as how to future proof yourself as a researcherand support for following a non-traditional academic pathway.
To top off the day we had two fabulous lightning presentation rounds to showcase the range of ECR research at La Trobe University. Our ECR presenters were faced with the challenge of presenting their work in under five minutes to a general academic audience—so they could not rely on discipline-specific jargon or acronyms! The professionalism and calibre of the presentations were outstanding; we were all very impressed with how they took on the challenge of communicating complex material in an accessible way in such a short time.
Being a networking conference, we couldn’t allow our ECR delegates to simply spend the day listening to outstanding presentations. Our famous sandbox challenge was on hand to generate lots of discussion and collaboration! Most of the audience had not previously heard of a sandboxing activity—this is where a small diverse groups of people who might not otherwise meet were stimulated to collaborate on a specific activity. These improbable connections sparked seriously creative ideas and exciting innovations. Delegates formed small groups with ECRs who they had not met previously or who were from different disciplines. The task was to work together to present a project to the conference audience which illustrated how the group would capitalise on individuals’ skills and expertise. And the best part? We organised a panel of judges who awarded a $1000 prize to the group who best demonstrated cross-discipline collaboration!!
In the midst of recovering from such an energetic and rewarding day, we would like to acknowledge and thank all of the speakers, panel members, and of course, the ECRs who attended and made the day possible. We, as the committee, are humbled by the positive feedback we have received; it drives us to strive forward and continue to create events that support and energise our thriving ECR community here at La Trobe.
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
