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Academic Career Development Support

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This programme is intended for earlier-stage postdoctoral researchers who are considering an academic career path and want to start taking steps to strengthen and grow their research profile, to be ready and competitive for an academic post in future.  

It will introduce you to some of the things you will need to understand, like how research funding works, and how to go about building a research profile. You will also meet and hear from members of academic staff who have recently made the transition from their postdoc phase, and get to reflect on and plan next steps towards this academic path.

Format

It runs as a series of events, workshops, and disscussion sets, on separate days. It is supported by members of the Queen Mary research community and colleagues in the Careers and Enterprise team, and the Queen Mary Academy. 

Feb 2024 Pilot included: 

  • 90-min Workshop: Funding Landscape and Finding Funding
  • 90-min Workshop: Developing Your Research Profile and Intellectual Niche
  • 90-min Workshop: Introduction to Research Fellowships
  • 60-min Panel Discussion: Transitions to Independence

Currently under development (to be included in the next run planned for October/November 2024)

  • Workshop: Developing your teaching skills
  • Workshop: Next Steps and Action Planning
  • We will be building in a buddy and small group support system along with this programme

In this workshop, we will go over how research funding works in the UK, and discuss the kinds of funding you should have on your radar, to help grow your research profile. We’ll examine a couple of research funding search tools you’ll get to try out. 

Running time: 90 minutes

Moving from working as a student or postdoc on your PI or group leader’s project to leading your research involves developing an independent line of enquiry, which, while it will be informed by your experience as a researcher, should introduce elements that are bespoke to your research interests.

In this workshop, we will discuss how you begin to establish your profile as independent researcher and begin to develop your intellectual niche, and how this is an essential part of establishing your fit within an academic (research) department.

Running time: 90 minutes 

Fellowships are a major source of research funding for postdoctoral researchers and offer fantastic career development opportunities for early-career academics.

In this workshop, we’ll talk about the qualities that funders look for in their fellowship candidates, and discuss how you can begin to develop your profile and networks to be competitive for these awards in future. We’ll build on discussions from the finding funding and intellectual niche sessions, and explore some of the fellowship programmes that are available to fund work in your discipline.

Running time: 90 minutes

You will hear from a panel of Queen Mary early-career researchers who have recently made the move to independent research as a fellow or as a new research group leader as well as other more senior researchers who help inform recruitment decisions for new academic researchers.

The session will also allow you to ask the panel questions about their transitions beyond their postdoc, how they developed themselves to prepare for them, and practical advice on things like interviews and funding.

October 2024 Panel (confirmed so far)

February 2024 Panel

September 2023 Panel

Running time: 60-90 minutes

In this session we look back over all the areas covered and ask you to think about what next steps are relevant to you. 

After this session you will have:

  • assessed how you might gain a funding track record
  • have assessed your career stage-development needs
  • plans about where to focus your efforts in the short and medium terms

This session is delivered by Emma Marie-Fry, Careers Consultant for Researchers.

Cohort 1 (2024): Oct 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov 5

Cohort 2 (2025): Feb 18, 25, 4, 11, 19

To book your place, visit CPD-Training 

Getting resources and signposting for questions about funding opportunities, great overview for me as I just moved to the UK a few months ago
— Jan/Feb Pilot Participant
I still learned a lot about the aspects of my CV I should try and improve/develop
— Jan/Feb 2024 Pilot Participant
[The most useful aspects of the course were...] Learning about the different types of grants there are and the organisms that fund them [and] learning what aspects of my CV I should reinforce.
— Jan/Feb 2024 Pilot Participant
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