Researcher Identity Development
Video recordings of the sessions
Supporting research ethics and integrity development in HE institutions
Have you ever wondered what would work in ethics education? Which research ethics competencies are relevant to early-career and more senior researchers? How could developing research ethics and integrity improve the quality of research and support building an ethical academy? We are inviting ECRs, their supervisors, but also department heads and others who are interested in research ethics and integrity, to participate in a webinar to find out how the culture of integrity could be supported through research ethics training. We will give insights to research ethics competence development through evidence-based training resource and provide participants with an opportunity to try out some tasks themselves to gain first-hand experience on how the resource works.
Speakers
Erika Löfström (University of Helsinki)
Erika Löfström is Professor of Education at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences. She is vice-chair of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity, and board member of the Academy of Finland. She has previously served as Vice Rector at Tallinn University, and is currently affiliated with Tallinn University as a visiting professor.
Anu Tammeleht (Tallin University)
Anu Tammeleht is an Analyst of Research Ethics and Data Management at Tallinn University and has been involved with teaching research ethics and researching development of research ethics competencies (in HE context) since early 2018.
Early career researchers’ careers: sustaining research careers and employability
Amidst hyper-competition for funding and jobs, the academic career path is becoming harder to pursue for most early career researcher (ECR)s. Furthermore, few ECRs think about their future career trajectory during or after their doctorate, and many lack sufficient access to training and career development opportunities. In this session, Mat will share the perspective of European doctoral candidates and junior researchers on what is needed to make a sustainable research career, and discuss what factors contribute to researcher ‘precarity’. Finally, Mat will explore how to remain employable in spite of the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaker
Mathew Tata (Eurodoc)
Mathew is a postdoctoral researcher from the UK and currently works as a neurobiologist in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition to serving as a General Board Member in Eurodoc, he also chairs it's Employment and Career Development Working Group.
Gender & Science: Promoting women’s participation in the scientific community
The influence of women in Limnology (i.e. the study of the ecology of freshwaters) has become more noticeable in the last decades. However, as in other scientific fields, the female presence decreases at higher stages of their career. In this session, we will present the Gender and Science group of the Iberian Association of Limnology (Gender & Science AIL) and the activities that this group is conducting. We will particularly focus on the group’s last work, examining women participation and visibility during scientific conferences. We analyzed, with a gender perspective, the first congress of the Iberian Society of Ecology (2019) including statistics of the attendees, participation during the congress, and personal perceptions. Finally, we will discuss with the attendees of the session recommendations and proposals to reduce gender barriers during scientific congresses and in other academic domains.
Speakers
Núria Catalán, Ada Pastor & Sílvia Poblador (The Gender & Science AIL group)
The Gender & Science AIL group was created in 2014. The main aims of the group are: i) being an external observer of gender biases within the AIL, ii) fostering women’s visibility within the scientific community, and iii) proposing recommendations for improving gender equality in institutions related with limnology. Since 2014, the group has conducted different projects and activities, including a scientific publication assessing the situation of women in Limnology “Women in Limnology in the Iberian Peninsula: Biases, Barriers and Recommendations”,the exhibition “Women in Limnology” to visualize the female scientists in this field (inaugurated in Coimbra in 2018) as well as round-tables and outreach documents.The session will be presented by Núria Catalán (CNRS-UMR, France; USGS, United States), Ada Pastor (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Sílvia Poblador (University of Antwerp, Belgium), members of Gender & Science AIL.
Managing your PhD to build your career
Have you ever wondered what else you could be doing to advance your PhD progress and outcomes?
This session, designed for anyone doing a PhD but particularly those early on, will give you a chance to reflect on the effectiveness of your present strategies to advance. Specifically, you will:
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Review your present actions and strategies
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Assess them in relation to what the research on PhD experience suggests is effective
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Generate specific ideas about what you could modify and add to your present repertoire
Those who attend will receive a post-session summary of the questions and my responses from the session.
Speaker
Lynn McAlpine (Oxford and McGill)
Lynn McAlpine is Professor Emerita at the University of Oxford UK and McGill University Canada. For over 15 years, she has studied the career trajectories of PhDs in a range of countries.
She is internationally recognized for her research, conducted in the UK, Europe and Canada, into PhD and post-PhD career trajectories both in and outside the academy.
She receives frequent international invitations to do workshops and keynotes that explore the implications of the research both from pedagogical and policy perspectives.
Transversal skills for doctoral candidates: universal for all professional paths?
How does the European Union define the professional careers for doctorate holders? Which models of transversal skills do we have at present for doctoral candidates? Are these transversal skills universal for all professional paths for doctorate holders or do they need to be tailored for every particular professional career? Does the European definition of professional careers for doctorate holders fit with the transversal skills models that we count with at present? We propose here to open a reflection about which transversal skills have to be developed for doctoral candidates to fuel their future professional careers.
Speaker
Joan Josep Carvajal (Group for the Professionalization of the Doctorate, Postgraduate and Doctoral School - Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
PhD in Chemistry (2003) from University Rovira i Virgili (URV), Spain, and vice-dean of the Faculty of Chemistry of the URV. He is founding member of the Group for the Professionalization of the Doctoral Supervision at URV, part of the Doctoral and Post-graduate School, and member of the organizing committee of the Tarragona Think Tank on PhD Supervisory Training.
Getting along with my supervisor: Building a satisfactory relationship
The supervisory relationship is essential for enabling the researcher development; however, in some cases, building this relationship may develop into a challenge. We will explore how both students and supervisors can contribute to nurture and sustain this relationship. We’ll look at how reflecting about the relationship with our supervisors -by recognizing challenges and achievements- is key to enhance the doctoral experience.
Speaker
Gabriela González (UPAEP)
Gabriela González-Ocampo is an Affiliate Professor and researcher in the Faculty of Education at UPAEP University in Mexico, and is also a member of the research group SINTE-Lest. Her research interests include postgraduate education, supervision and academic writing.
Access to the labor market for Doctors (PhD survey 2020)
AQU Catalunya is presenting the results of the PhD Survey 2020 about the access to the labour market experienced by doctors graduating from Catalan universities. Since this study has been conducted every 3 years since 2008 is possible to observe trends both regarding labor market conditions and the satisfaction with PhD training. We will show as well how different economic sectors value PhDs when hiring.
Speaker
Anna Prades (AQU)
Head of Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Department of AQU Catalunya, where she has been working since 2001. She has a degree in Psychology (1996) and a PhD in Pedagogy (2005) from the Universitat of Barcelona. She coordinates the graduate, master and PhD’s labor market survey, as well as the recent graduates’ satisfaction survey and the employers’ survey.
Publish or perish
Academic career assessment has a strong influence on future early career researchers. The use of numerical metrics like the Journal Impact Factor or the H-Index for assessing researchers forces them to focus on publishing as many articles as possible in a few journals. The “publish and perish” culture that follows leads to increasing pressure on academics and prevent them to broaden the range of their activities and taking other forms of communicating their research into account. This also significantly impacts their self-perception as academics and hinders the transition to Open Science.
There is an increasing consensus among Universities and other stakeholders concerning the need to reform the current assessment system. The presentation will look at the problems attached to the publish and perish approach and address how this can increase the precarity of researchers careers, but also discuss alternative approaches to (academic) career assessment that enable early career researchers to develop their full potential.
Speaker
Alexander Hasgall (EUA)
Dr. Alexander Hasgall is Head of the EUA Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE). He is responsible for the largest European network in this field, bringing together a community of academic leaders and professionals from 265 Universities in 36 countries. Before assuming this position, he coordinated the Swiss University Rectors conference’s programme on research evaluation in the social sciences and humanities. Alexander Hasgall obtained a doctorate in History from the University of Zurich, with a dissertation on the topic «Regimes of Recognition. Struggles over truth and justice in dealing with the last military dictatorship in Argentina». Outside of the higher education sector, Alexander acquired different working experiences in the NGO sector, in market research and in Journalism.
PhD Holders in Non-Academic Careers
This session will explore the results from pilot studies on PhD holders working in non-academic careers in the UK and Switzerland. Using several cases as examples, we will discuss strategies for finding positions, factors influencing career decision-making, and participants' perceptions of the usefulness and relevance of their PhDs.
