Early Career Researcher

Dementia Research: Boosting Opportunities for Early Career Researchers Using DPUK

Early career researchers will play an essential part in developing UK capacity for dementia research. Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) provides an exciting and unique cross-Institution platform able to facilitate exposure of early career scientists to the latest techniques and approaches in the field.

Kim Graham, the new Dementias Platform Champion for Early Career Researchers, is keen to garner your views about how DPUK could help PhD and postdoctoral scientist training and skill enhancement. Your views are important as they will help shape our scoping of these opportunities, ensuring our plans reflect the identified needs of young researchers.

This survey provides an opportunity for you to tell us about the things that are important to you and what DPUK could consider doing to help your career progression.

Question Title

* 1. To help us identify the distinct needs at different career stages / Institutions, please tell us your current position

PhD student

Post Doctorate

Research Associate

Other – please specify

And, your current Institution

Question Title

* 2. Can you tell us what scientific training opportunities are already available to you at the Institution (e.g., modules, workshops, courses on dementia), and how these support skill enhancement in dementia research?

Question Title

* 3. Training:

a. What new training would you like to see developed as part of the DPUK?

b. How do you think DPUK could support your ideas about new training and skill enhancement?

Question Title

* 4. Networking

a. What networking opportunities would you like to see being developed by DPUK for early career researchers?

b. How do you think DPUK could implement an effective early career research network, and encourage input and influence from younger researchers?

Question Title

* 5. Website: We are currently reviewing and improving the content on our website

a. What information would you like us to improve and how?

b. What additional information would you like us to include for early career researchers?

c. Would you be willing to contribute information, for example, if we had an early career researcher DPUK section on the website? If so, what form might this part of the website take?

Question Title

* 6. Newsletter: We are always looking for news and information to include in our newsletters and ways to improve them

a. What information would you like us to improve and how?

b. What additional information would you like us to include, in particular to encourage visibility of early career research activities?

c. Would you be willing to contribute information, and what forms of communication might be effective in boosting early career visibility?

Question Title

* 7. Annual Conference: As part of the conference this year ECR’s had opportunity to submit abstracts for inclusion in a Poster Exhibition and for Presentation as part of the main event. For our 2017 conference, what activities would you like us to include for early career researchers?

	Yes	No
Poster Presentations	Poster Presentations Yes	Poster Presentations No
Comment
Talks by ECR as part of the main programme	Talks by ECR as part of the main programme Yes	Talks by ECR as part of the main programme No
Comment
A pre-conference workshop dedicated to ECR’s	A pre-conference workshop dedicated to ECR’s Yes	A pre-conference workshop dedicated to ECR’s No
Comment
Other activities: please specify	Other activities: please specify Yes	Other activities: please specify No
Comment

Question Title

* 8. Workshops: The Research Networks and Experimental Medicine strategy groups hold workshops to discuss collaboration opportunities, identify gaps in current research and to identify priorities for future research. These are usually attended by Principal Investigators. We would like to open up some opportunities for Post Docs to attend these in an observation capacity, perhaps writing up some summary notes or key points that could be made available to other researchers interested in the topic. There will be some information about previous and planned events on our website Events page to give you more of an idea of what this includes.

	Yes	No
Do you think opportunity to attend such discussions would be valuable to you?	Do you think opportunity to attend such discussions would be valuable to you? Yes	Do you think opportunity to attend such discussions would be valuable to you? No
Comments
Do you think receiving summary information from these discussions would be valuable to you?	Do you think receiving summary information from these discussions would be valuable to you? Yes	Do you think receiving summary information from these discussions would be valuable to you? No
Comments
Based on previous topics please indicate which you may be interested in attending:	Based on previous topics please indicate which you may be interested in attending: Yes	Based on previous topics please indicate which you may be interested in attending: No
Comments
i. Vascular Disease Mechanisms	i. Vascular Disease Mechanisms Yes	i. Vascular Disease Mechanisms No
Comments
ii. Synaptic Health	ii. Synaptic Health Yes	ii. Synaptic Health No
Comments
iii. Inflammation and Immunity	iii. Inflammation and Immunity Yes	iii. Inflammation and Immunity No
Comments
iv. Stem Cells	iv. Stem Cells Yes	iv. Stem Cells No
Comments
v. Wearables and Devices	v. Wearables and Devices Yes	v. Wearables and Devices No
Comments
vi. Cross-Cohort collaboration and research	vi. Cross-Cohort collaboration and research Yes	vi. Cross-Cohort collaboration and research No
Comments
vii. Brain Donation	vii. Brain Donation Yes	vii. Brain Donation No
Comments
viii. ELSI	viii. ELSI Yes	viii. ELSI No
Comments
ix. Publication and Reward	ix. Publication and Reward Yes	ix. Publication and Reward No
Comments
x. Other - please specify	x. Other - please specify Yes	x. Other - please specify No
Comments

Question Title

* 9. There are many collaborations within DPUK, between academic institutes as well as between academia and industry. There may be benefits in creating cross-institution opportunities to include mentoring, fellowships, collaborative research. Is this something that may be of interest / benefit to you?

Yes

Comment

Question Title

* 10. If you have any other comments that you would like to make or suggestions for ways that we could help you please let us know here or by contacting us at info@dementiasplatform.uk

It is possible that we will be conducting further surveys / opinion polls over the next year to be able to more thoroughly explore the needs of Early Career Researchers in different fields in order to make the most of the opportunities DPUK can provide. If you do not wish to receive this information directly please let us know.

Look out for new information on our website and twitter. Your feedback is always welcome.

Thank you

Comments