Following on from our successful first event in January 2023, in November the BIOPOLE ECR network hosted the second event in our Careers Pathway Series, which provide an opportunity for mid- to late-career BIOPOLE members to share their career journeys and for ECRs to ask questions and advice about how they got to their current position.  

We had three excellent panellists from across different BIOPOLE work packages: Prof Kate Hendry (BAS), Dr Andrew Yool (NOC), and Dr Huw Griffiths (BAS). The panellists shared their different pathways and experiences from undergraduate to postgraduate study, PhD and post docs, fellowships and on to permanent positions. The session was very rewarding and generated great discussions about proposal writing, the importance of mentorship, and the process of writing fellowship applications as well as the transition from ECR to mid-career scientist.  

Amy Swiggs, a PhD student in Work Package 1, said of the session: “It was fantastic to see such a variety of career paths and the different ways that you can achieve your goals. There can be a lot of challenges in progressing your career, and it was great to demystify some of the key stages, including proposal writing and fellowship applications”. 

A huge thanks to the panellists for their time, candour and willingness to engage with us – it was a really interesting and useful discussion. The session also developed a new mentor-mentee pairing following discussions about the parallels between Huw’s career pathway and the pathway that Alanna is hoping to take, which was a great outcome of the session. We hope to run similar meetings in our Careers Pathway Series, and we are always looking for panellists to share their experience, so please do get in touch with the ECR representative if you would like to be involved. In addition, our BIOPOLE Mentoring Scheme is well underway, and if you are interested in becoming a mentor or mentee, please get in touch, or see the BIOPOLE SharePoint for further information. 

The authors of the blog  – Chelsey Baker (NOC) and Amy Swiggs (Northumbria University)