Tag: Research Staff

Core Engagement Masterclass: (11 March)

Sign-up for the Core Engagement Masterclass

Are you new to public engagement and looking to develop and broaden your understanding?

Register for the Core Engagement Masterclass on 11 March. This interactive session will help you to understand why public engagement is important and will explore approaches to quality engagement.

📍 Core Engagement Masterclass: Wednesday 11 March 2026, 13.00-16.30, South Kensington Campus

The session is open to all Imperial staff, doctoral students and postgraduate research masters students. Visit our website for further details and to register your place.

Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) workshop (26 February)

Following the very successful first workshop on “Fellowships and Funding” in November 2025, we are now excited to invite you to our second workshop for this academic year focused on Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE).

Date: Thursday, 26th February
Location: Wolfson Centre, Seminar Rooms 1&2 – Hammersmith Campus
Time: 11:00–13:00

The session will include short presentations and interactive discussions aimed primarily at postdoctoral researchers and fellows, with a focus on practical, meaningful and respectful PPIE across health research.

We will also be joined by two patient representatives, who will share their perspectives and lived experience, alongside colleagues including Dr Patrick Kierkegaard, Charlotte Coales (Imperial Centre for Societal Engagement) and Kelly Gleason (CRUK Lead Nurse).

You can register for the event using this link: Event Registration – Fill out form

Mary Paraskevaidi and Stefania Maneta-Stavrakaki.

on behalf of MDR, I&I and S&C Postdocs and Fellows Representatives

Please find the workshop’s agenda below.

Time Session and Speakers
11:00–11:05 Welcome and agenda
11:05–11:45 Session 1. Public and Patient Involvement: Principles and Practice

By Kelly Gleason (CRUK Lead Nurse) and Dr Patrick Kierkegaard

• Consultation vs involvement vs co-production

• Why last-minute PPI fails – common pitfalls and what not to do

• Budgeting for PPI (payments, time, administration)

• Starting PPI before the application stage

• Identifying and engaging patient/public contributors

• Maintaining meaningful PPI throughout the project lifecycle
11:45–12:00 Coffee Break
12:00–12:40 Session 2. Patient Representatives and Case Studies

By patient representatives, Kelly Gleason and Dr Patrick Kierkegaard

• What early involvement looks like from the patient perspective

• Real-world examples of effective PPI in research

• Reflections on good practice and researcher–patient relationships
12:40–13:00 Session 3. Public and Patient Engagement (PPIE): Beyond PPI

By Charlotte Coales (Imperial Centre for Societal Engagement)

• The benefits of engaging with the public

• When and how to engage with the public

• Support available through the Public and Community Engagement team

 

Save the date for our upcoming events! 

  1. Outreach and public engagement – 26th Feb 2026
  2. Change of career – 23rd April 2026
  3. ARC conversation – 25th June 2026

Imperial Inaugrals: Salty tales: impacts of salinity in the subsurface (18 February)

Salty tales: impacts of salinity in the subsurface

Wednesday 18 February, 17.30
South Kensington Campus and online

Professor Adrian Butler, Professor of Subsurface Hydrology, explores how sodium and chloride influence water systems, the environment, and human health, from radioactive waste to safe drinking water.

Read more and register

 

Tales from STEM lunch (20 February)

We have invited Dr. Isabella Guido to participate in our fourth iteration of our Tales from STEM lunch (see poster attached). Please complete the form below to register (includes dietary requirements) and, if you want, submit questions you would like us to ask Isabella.

Join us to have an informal chat over lunch about what inspired her to combine different disciplines to answer scientific questions, how she manages to integrate physics, engineering and biology so seamlessly and what her journey across different countries and institutions have taught her.

Please forward this email to any ECRs that may be interested, it is open to all departments!

Hope to see you there 😊

The DoLS postdoc and fellows committee

 

Virtual ‘Introductory Medical Statistics’ course – 21 & 22 May 2026

The ‘Introductory Medical Statistics’ course will be held on Thursday 21 (pm) to Friday 22 May (am) 2026 – one day in total.

The course is run by statisticians and epidemiologists based at NHLI and will be held and recorded on Microsoft Teams. Recordings will be circulated afterwards and delegates also receive an individual attendance certificate.

It is suitable for doctors (including trainee grades), nurses, allied health professionals, clinical research fellows and postgraduate students, and aims to provide an introduction to basic statistical concepts.

Booking link

https://estore.imperial.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-medicine/nhli/online-introductory-medical-statistics-course-may-2026

Registration fees (VAT doesn’t apply):

  • MSc/PhD Students (full time students without another source of income): £125
  • Academic/NHS/Charities (those working in the NHS, at a university or in the charitable sector): £195
  • Corporate/Other (those working in the private sector): £245
  • NB: Imperial College staff and students can pay via internal journal/transfer, using an Imperial finance code.  Please contact Magda Wheatley on m.wheatley@imperial.ac.uk for further details (you don’t then need to book online).

Total number of places available

Places are offered on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis.  Please note that the course can accommodate 45 delegates only, and that the course tends to fill up quickly.  Registration will close when the course is full.

Accreditation

Six CPD points are currently being sought.

Research Computing Showcase Day 2026 (21 April)

You are invited to Research Computing Showcase Day 2026 on Tuesday 21 April 2026, 10:00–15:00 (BST) in LT200 and foyer, City & Guilds Building, South Kensington Campus, with an option to join online.

The event will highlight research enabled by Research Computing Services (RCS), including RSE projects, sensitive data platforms, and new services such as HX2 (HEX-HTC) and HX3 (HEX-AI). The day will feature talks, demos, and opportunities to meet RCS staff, fellow researchers, and external partners (e.g. Intel, Lenovo, NVIDIA).

Call for abstracts

We invite submissions from researchers using RCS facilities or support.

  • Abstract deadline: 16 February 2026
  • Notification: by 06 March 2026

Registration

  • In-person (South Kensington): register by 14 April 2026
  • Online: register by 21 April 2026

For queries, please contact e.lumley@imperial.ac.uk

Supporting Disabled and Neurodivergent Researchers at the Library Survey

To better understand the role of the library in supporting disabled and neurodivergent students and researchers, I am gathering feedback on the current library adjustments and identifying any gaps in how this information is made available, as well as any suggestions for additional support the library could implement.

Could you please complete this short (5 question) survey sharing your experience of library adjustments or support? It will be helpful for us to know your experience, even if you haven’t received any adjustments or support or haven’t been assessed by the Disability Advisory Service.

Imperial Fungal Science Network – Seminar Series 2026/ECR Talks: (19 Feb 2026)

 

 
 

We warmly invite you to attend the Imperial Fungal Science Network Seminar on

 

🗓️ Thursday 19th February, 12:00 – 13:00

 

📍 G47 Flowers Building, South Kensington Campus, Armstrong Road, London SW7 2AZ  3A on map

 

in-person (walk in; refreshments from 11:30am)
or online (via Teams)

 

no registration required

 

  

 

 

Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 337 087 815 982 04

Passcode: eg6Rc99x

 

 

>click here – live event info IFSN Seminar | 12noon Thurs 19 Feb | ECR Talks
Biotechnology and engineering

 

 Louis Cohen (Stanley Lab, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London)
“Mycorrhiza-on-a-chip” – developing microfluidic systems for studying root-fungal symbioses
The relationship between plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi is ancient and laid the foundation for terrestrial life on earth. Today, this relationship underpins agricultural yields and ecosystem stability. How individual mycorrhizal fungal hyphae initiate a symbiosis-specific response from plant hosts is still largely unknown. Microfluidic technology is a useful tool to engineer custom simplified microenvironments to monitor these pre-symbiotic interactions in real time, and gain insights into the mechanisms that drive symbiotic crosstalk.

 
Pathogenesis of fungal diseases

 

 Dr Lauren Dineen (Armstrong-James Lab, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London)
Exploring tRNA diversity in yeast using machine learning and direct RNA sequencing approaches
Up until recent decades, tRNA were thought to be passive molecules in translation. We now know that tRNA are important regulatory molecules that influence translation dynamics and other cellular processes. Despite leaps in the field, significant gaps in knowledge of fundamental tRNA biology remain. I will talk about my recent work focused on tRNA diversity within the Saccharomycotina yeast subphylum using both computational and direct RNA sequencing approaches.

 

 
Ecology, evolution and the environment

 

 

 Dr Marco Balducci (Savolainen Lab, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park, Imperial College London)
Can symbiosis underpin local adaptation?
Using metabarcoding and meta-transcriptomics, we examine how Howea palms and their arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities vary with host identity and soil environment. Metabarcoding reveals that AMF community composition is structured by both host species and habitat, while meta-transcriptomic analyses show coordinated shifts in fungal function, stress tolerance, and cross-kingdom gene co-expression across soils. Together, these patterns suggest that environmentally structured plant–microbiome interactions contribute to local adaptation in a natural system.

 

 

 

 

Imperial Fungal Science Network leadership team

From Bench to Business: Making IP work for you (25 Feb 2026)

From Bench to Business: Making IP work for you

How do academics and researchers make IP work for them? Learn how to start with the end in mind, prioritise what’s valuable and protectable, ensure your intellectual property is investment-ready, and what makes a good licensable technology.

Our panel of patent attorneys, academic entrepreneurs and industry experts will share expert guidance in a dynamic panel discussion format. The event will be followed by a networking lunch. Read more and register.

Event date, time and location

LT300, City & Guilds Building, Imperial College London (South Kensington Campus)

25th February, 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm (followed by a networking lunch)