Tag: Research Staff

Exploring precarity in research careers survey

We need your support to better understand and alleviate the precarious nature of fixed-term contracts.

The Action Research on Research Culture project at the University of Cambridge is conducting an online Discrete Choice Experiment to examine how postdocs and ECRs make career choices. The results from this survey will inform policy recommendations aimed at increasing job security at the postdoctoral level.

With only 10-15 minutes of your time, you can contribute to the conversation about contract precarity in the academic sector and help us improve job security for ECRs. As a token of our appreciation, we will donate £2 to a charity of your choice for completion of our survey!

Survey can be completed here.

Standing Up for Science – The John Maddox Prize (deadline: 30 April 2025)

Nominations and self-applications are now open for Standing Up for Science – The John Maddox Prize

Standing up for Science – The John Maddox Prize, recognises researchers who stand up and speak out for science and evidence-based policy, advancing public discussion around difficult topics, despite challenges or hostility, and successfully making a change in public discourse or policy.

There are two categories: early-career and lifetime achievement. Each winner receives 5000 euros and their work will be featured on Nature.com.

Both of the categories celebrate researchers who courageously and skillfully advance the public discourse, successfully increasing public and government engagement with, and acceptance of, sound science and strong evidence. The prize shines a spotlight on the efforts of researchers all over the world who inspire and encourage others to do the same. The prize has a global focus and receives hundreds of nominations from dozens of countries.

Deadline for nominations: 30 April 2025

Find out more

Virtual ‘Introductory Medical Statistics’ course – 22 May (pm) – 23 May (am) 2025

The Introductory Medical Statistics course, held online, is an introduction to basic statistical concepts, and is run by statisticians and epidemiologists based at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), part of Imperial College.

It is suitable for doctors (including trainee grades), nurses, allied health professionals, clinical research fellows and postgraduate students.

Registration fees are as follows (VAT doesn’t apply):

  • MSc/PhD Students: £120
  • Academic/NHS/Charities: £190
  • Corporate/Other: £240

Booking link:

https://estore.imperial.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-medicine/nhli/online-introductory-medical-statistics-course-may-2025

  • NB: Imperial College staff and students can pay via internal journal/transfer, using an Imperial finance code.  Please contact Magda Wheatley on wheatley@imperial.ac.uk for further details (you don’t then need to book online).

It will be held and recorded on Microsoft Teams, and recordings circulated afterwards.

Please note that places are offered on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis, and that we can accommodate 45 delegates only.

Further details can be seen on our website: https://www.medstatscourse.co.uk/

Six CPD points are currently sought.

IX-WAI Early Career Development Grants (deadline: 30 April)

IX-WAI Early Career Development Grants – Round 3

The I-X Women in AI network (IX-WAI) launched the third round of the Early Career Development grants (up to £300*) specifically for women and non-binary individuals engaged in AI or wanting to enter the field. These grants are intended to support conference attendance, training, and other professional development opportunities. This initiative is part of our commitment to providing additional support for women in AI.

The deadline for this round is 30 April 2025.

To apply for a grant, please complete this brief online form with the following information:

  • Requested amount (up to £300)
  • Purpose of the grant (one/two sentences)
  • Departmental account number (or your supervisor/mentor’s departmental account number for fund transfer if selected)
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV)
  • Brief proposal (~400 words) outlining the purpose and impact of the grant.

Please note: the activity for which you are applying must take place at least one month after the application deadline. If you have already been awarded the grant, you are not eligible to apply again.

Visit the IX-WAI Early Career Grant website to find out more about the application process.

Establishing the Imperial IBD Research Community – Join Us!

Are you a researcher, engineer, or clinician working on or interested in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research? If you’re based at Imperial, Imperial NHS, or St Mark’s Hospital, we’re building an IBD research community to foster collaborations, support grant applications, and facilitate knowledge sharing and translation across all departments, career stages, and backgrounds.

Please take a moment to help us map this network by completing this short form: Join the IBD Research Community.

Save the Date for Our First Networking Event

📅 When: 24th April, 16:00
📍 Where: Hammersmith Campus

Let us know if you’ll be attending by filling out the form by 21st February, so we can secure the right venue size.

Join the new Viva Engage channel: Measuring Visibility and Impact

Join the new Viva Engage channel: Measuring Visibility and Impact

Scholarly Communications Management team has created a new Viva Engage community channel, Measuring Visibility and Impact to share insights and updates and invite discussion and collaboration on the various tools that imperial subscribes to. Tips and guidance on responsible use of metrics will also be shared.

Imperial subscribes to a number of powerful tools (e.g. Altmetric for tracking mentions of research publications on social media and news and Overton for monitoring citations on policy documents), but many staff and students are either unaware of these sources or unsure how to use them effectively. Through the Measuring Visibility and Impact channel, we aim to bridge this gap by advertising the tools, sharing updates about them, interesting case studies and organising training sessions to equip you to work with them.

The research analytics products allow you to:

  • track academic and societal impact of research publications, not only journal articles but other types of outputs such as reports, theses or preprints,
  • move away from journal-based metrics and h-index,
  • better communicate research results and increase visibility,
  • help you prepare job applications, narrative CVs, grant applications and REF submissions,
  • understand the latest research trends and key research areas in different disciplines,
  • monitor research performance of research groups, departments, faculties or institutions.

The community channel will support Imperial’s commitment to the responsible use of metrics by promoting best practice, fostering awareness, and keeping you updated about initiatives and opportunities. The channel will serve the ultimate objective of building a healthy research culture at Imperial by helping us break out of the dysfunctional culture of publish-or-perish.

Please join the Measuring Visibility and Impact community channel on Viva Engage and share this message with your contacts who might be interested.

Online Study on Experiences in Writing Narrative CVs

We are conducting a study aimed at understanding researchers’ experiences of writing Narrative CVs and analysing the language used in such CVs. We are interested in identifying challenges and ways to support researchers in writing Narrative CVs as part of grant applications. The study is part of a project titled ‘Breaking Barriers in Research Funding Applications: Evaluating Narrative CVs and Co-Designing Solutions for Application Processes’, led by Dr Fabio Fasoli (University of Surrey) and funded by the EDICa Flexible Fund.

What: The study involves completing a short online survey asking questions about yourself and the experience of writing a Narrative CV. You will be asked to attach a Narrative CV you have written. The CVs will be anonymised and analysed for language features and used for a second study assessing reviewers’ biases.

Who: We are looking for individuals who:

  1. a) are active researchers working in the UK,
  2. b) have applied and submitted a Narrative CV as part of their grant application.

We are aiming to obtain and analyse Narrative CVs of both successful and unsuccessful applications written by researchers belonging to represented and underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, disability, etc).

When and Where: To participate, please click on this link: https://surreyfahs.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bQ1jTOpqBCj8Dum. Make sure to have your Narrative CV ready to upload.

Incentive: In exchange for your participation, you can enter your email address at the end of the study to receive a £10 Amazon voucher. Only participants who provide a valid Narrative CV and complete the survey will be compensated. The voucher will be sent to the participants at the end of the data collection (March 2025)

Additional information about the project can be found here. If you have any questions, you can email Dr Fasoli (f.fasoli@surrey.ac.uk)

The study has been approved by received a favourable opinion from the University of Surrey Ethics Committee [REF 0064]