By Sophie Ball and Katrina Fordwor, Department of Immunology and Inflammation
PhD students can easily get caught up in their projects, labs and work and not have the opportunity to network with other students, whether these students are from the same floor or other labs. The department for Inflammatory and Infection is spread over multiple floors, so it is easy for students to become siloed and not to interact with one another across the whole of their PhD. This is why we set up a monthly initiative to bring PhD students together in a relaxed setting. The Graduate School has granted us the opportunity to fund a monthly lunch. These events to allow PhD students to network in a casual setting, while being fuelled with some well-deserved food.
Collaborations between labs is a massive part of research, building a career and the general life of a scientist. This event was created exactly for that purpose, to allow students to gather in a communal space and interact with different labs. Having this event with lunch provided a relaxed atmosphere that allowed conversations to flow to discuss their current projects, career aspirations and identify future collaborators. I personally felt this event was a great way to speak to other students in the department and learn about the research going on, on floors just above me.
The I&I PhD Student Networking event is scheduled at lunchtime once a month, normally on the first Friday, and lasts for about an hour. This event is scheduled to continue for the remaining of the academic year, allowing these new connections to strengthen and possibly allow new research collaborations to develop. Moving forward, I hope this initiative continues to grow with this event’s participants reaching out to other students who missed out. It has the space to expand to a larger event with guest speakers and themed discussions but for now, it provides a simple yet effective way for PhD students to mingle and strengthen the academic community we are trying to achieve here at Imperial.
