澳门历史开奖记录

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Global Opportunities event offers UCL early careers staff practical career advice

8 June 2018

The event aimed 澳门历史开奖记录's early career staff brought the academic community together to share best practice and highlight global opportunities

Audience at Global Opportunities event, UCL

The inaugural 聽event took place 澳门历史开奖记录鈥檚 Institute of Education (IOE) on 4 June, offering academic writing tips, grant and paper application advice and information about UCL鈥檚 global funding opportunities.

Co-organised by UCL鈥檚 Global Engagement Office (GEO), the Organisational Development department and the Office of the Vice-Provost for Research (OVPR) with committee representation from all UCL Domain Early Career Staff networks, the half-day event was split into two main sections, with networking opportunities bookending the talks.聽

Research Development Programme

Kicking off the conference, David Bogle, Professor of Chemical Engineering, outlined the research landscape 澳门历史开奖记录 today. 鈥淩esearch is very much an international business,鈥 he said. 鈥淓verything we do can have an international impact.鈥

David explained that while all indicators point to UCL being a great place to do research 鈥 it is the top-rated university in the UK for research strength in the latest Research Excellence Framework 鈥撀爐here is always room for improvement.

Echoing this sentiment, Richard Laughlin, UCL鈥檚 Head of Organisational Development, then talked through the UCL Research Staff Hub, a 鈥淥ne stop shop for everything to do with research staff development.鈥

He explained that there are a number of events taking place as part of UCL鈥檚 Research Development Programme over the coming months, with topics including managing people for the first time; writing a book and finding your voice as an academic writer.

Future plans for research development 澳门历史开奖记录, Richard explained, include enhanced researcher mentoring provision, the opening of a research development centre and increased availability of career coaching.

Early careers staff at Global opportunities event
Global Engagement Funds

Chris Cook, Project Manager (Grants & Evaluation) at GEO, talked through the Global Engagement Funds, an annual small grant scheme for global partnerships which 鈥渆nables a meeting of minds that wouldn鈥檛 otherwise happen.鈥

Chris cited the work of Professor Monica Lakhanpaul as an example of just how beneficial applying for the funds can be; Monica鈥檚 work alongside Professor Marie Lall (UCL Institute of Education and Pro-Vice-Provost South Asia) and Dr Priti Parikh (UCL Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering) ultimately led to the securing of a 拢500,000 MRC grant.

Chris told the audience: 鈥41 per cent of awards went to early career staff last year, so it鈥檚 well worth applying.鈥 He also mentioned the UCL Research Catalyst Awards and Grand Challenges Small Grant scheme as viable international funding opportunities.

Former recipients of the Global Engagement Funds then spoke through their projects and the application process, including Yasemin Allsop, from the Department of Learning and Leadership at the IOE, who is working with the Payas STEM Centre in Turkey on educational interventions for refugee children.

She advised: 鈥淐ommunicate the UCL ethics procedure clearly right from the start and ensure that it has been followed thoroughly. We did mock interviews to make sure we were all on the same page.鈥

Academic writing advice

In the final session, 鈥楪etting published in international journals,鈥 academics from across UCL offered their advice on writing and publication.

Professor Claire Cameron,聽Professor of Social Pedagogy at the IOE,聽advised: 鈥淕et a mentor or a buddy if you are new to writing papers, who can critically examine your work at an early stage.鈥

She added: 鈥'Non-native English speakers would be best working with a native speaker before sending a draft paper to editors.鈥

Professor聽David Price (Vice-Provost Research),聽meanwhile, urged early career staff to publish only their best work. 鈥淥ne outstanding paper is better than a handful of mediocre ones,鈥 he said.

In his session on writing a good MS review, Dr Nigel Field, Lead for the Centre of Molecular Epidemiology and Translational Research at the Institute for Global Health, provided numerous practical tips, including to reviewers to be polite, fair and professional at all times (鈥渆ven if you hate the paper鈥); to briefly summarise the manuscript and key findings; and to make life easy for the editor and authors by being precise about exactly where and what the problem is.

Building academic communities

Passing on his advice for getting published, Professor George Letsas, Vice-Dean聽International 澳门历史开奖记录 Faculty for Laws, said: 鈥淭hink about the five-10 people you want to read your work throughout the world. Where do they tend to publish?鈥

鈥淲ho do they cite? Which conferences do they attend? Target these. This is how academic communities are built.鈥

He also advised, 鈥淕row out of the PhD writing style: Prose matters, and academic writing does not have to be boring.鈥