Posters
Collaborations across disciplinary and geographic boundaries: characteristics and competencies
Presenters: Fiona Colligan, Head of piirus at the University of Warwick; Alison Osborne, Marketing Officer at www.jobs.ac.uk
Organisation: piirus.ac.uk at the University of Warwick
Outline
It is important for researchers to identify the competencies that they need to carry out collaborations across disciplinary and geographic boundaries. piirus.ac.uk has gained expertise and knowledge on research collaboration themes, including through surveys of both researchers and research managers.
Through this poster we will define formal and informal collaboration in research, in the context of early career researchers’ careers. We will present some of the challenges and perceived barriers to collaboration, and how these can be overcome.
We will use a visual approach to explore the benefits of collaboration specifically focusing on the competencies that can be developed through interdisciplinary and international collaborations.
Themes
- Researcher development across boundaries including international collaborations, inter-cultural competences, international researchers’ experiences, business/industry collaborations and engaging society through open research.
Key Messages
As a result of reading our poster, participants will learn:-
- real and perceived barriers to collaboration across international and interdisciplinary boundaries and the competencies needed to overcome them
- benefits of collaboration including experience of forming partnerships, building a team, communicating with and learning from others
- competencies that can be developed through collaboration including communication skills, teamwork, leadership, inter-personal skills and self-management
Leading by walking about
Presenter: Davina Whitnall, Independent Researcher Developer
Organisation: University of Manchester
Outline
This poster explores the creative and innovative approaches to enhancing leadership in early career researchers by simply walking about. The leading by walking about approach which involves discovering how to:
- Generate ideas and enhance creative thinking
- Getting things done quickly and efficiently
- Networking and personal effectiveness
- Identifying opportunities to increase career development
The approach includes walking and taking turns in leading different conversations. The poster suggests ways that groups can identify topics to talk about and plan their walk and how to progress the development of an action plan.
The topics covered include:
- Using walking to generate ideas and enhance creativity
- Using walking to increase leadership awareness
- Techniques for researcher networking and interactivity
- Leadership challenges for early career researchers
- Planning and evaluating interactive activities
Themes
- Engaging research leaders, principal investigators and supervisors to transform professional development of researchers and embed professional development in the research environment
- Leadership development of early career researchers including researchers\xe2\x80\x99 as leaders in different disciplines
- New and successful ways of supporting researchers’ mobility including international, inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary and virtual mobility
- Researcher development within structured doctoral programmes, including perspectives on doctoral training centres/ partnerships, Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) and other cohort based models; including European and international collaborations and organisational benefits and challenges in managing diverse researchers’ experiences
Key Messages
- Exploration of techniques for leadership.
- Strategies for developing creativity.
- Supporting goal setting and action planning.
- Encouraging peer coaching.
The Next Generation Scientist Program : Lessons learnt from a five year academic-industry collaboration to build science capacity in LMIC
Presenter: Akiko Keller, Project Manager, Global Scientific Capabilities Centre for Excellence
Organisation: Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland
Outline
The Next Generation Scientist Program aims to increase the volume and quality of healthcare research in previously under-served parts of the world. The program comprises a 3-month on-site research internship for Masters, PhD and post-doctoral level scientists and clinicians from low and middle-income (LMIC) countries.
Research projects expose selected scientists to state-of-the-art methodologies and leading experts in the fields while ensuring use within their home infrastructure. Students run seminars on drug discovery and development which also reinforces scientific leadership, teamwork and practical hints on addressing healthcare challenges within their local systems. The interns present their research results as a scientific poster at a graduation event.
To date, over 100 scientists from 24 countries have participated: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Based on this programmes success, complementary programs such as the CRG-Novartis-Africa Mobility Program have been developed to drive training in specific scientific themes of relevance locally.
Themes
- Developing a pipeline of research talent, including widening participation, strategies to attract and retain research talent, and approaches to mainstreaming equality and diversity for researchers in the research environment
- Leadership development of early career researchers including researchers’ as leaders in different disciplines
- Researcher development across boundaries including international collaborations, inter-cultural competences, international researchers’ experiences, business/industry collaborations and engaging society through open research.
Key Messages
- A university accredited internship program for talented and motivated research scientists from low and middle income countries as a successful example of an industry-academic collaboration. The students are awarded 22 European Credit Transfer System points from the University of Basel upon successful completion.
- Capacity building of young scientists through exposure to hands-on research experience in a Pharma environment in the respective field of expertise combined with leadership and communication skills. The program was initiated in 2011 and the cohort is supported by a multi-disciplinary team of experienced Pharma and University scientists.
- Foster local healthcare systems strengthening by applying the principles of knowledge transfer to scientific communities upon return. Public-private-academic collaborative programs for developing scientific capabilities in LMIC can sustainably contribute to strengthening the local science base. This holds promise for improving local healthcare systems.
The CRG-Novartis-Africa Mobility Programme: boosting capabilities and specialized skills in genetics/genomics for African researchers
Presenter: Michela Bertero, Head of International and Scientific Affairs at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona
Organisation: Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona
Outline
The CRG-Novartis-Africa Mobility Programme is a joint collaboration between the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Novartis Pharma and a few African Universities to advance bioinformatics, genetics and genomics research in Africa by mentoring young and promising African scientists. Since inception three Universities in South Africa (University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University) and one institute in Kenya (Kenya Medical Research Institute) have sent scientists to the CRG laboratories.
The programme allows annually for up to four early career researchers from African Universities to spend a 6-month internship at the CRG to carry out their own project under the supervision of a CRG principal investigator. Well established senior researchers support the dissemination of the programme in different African research institutes, and perform the local pre-selection of candidates. The selected African researchers have access to state-of-the-art facilities, participate in high-level CRG training programmes and get the opportunity to build long term collaborations with experts in their field.
The CRG-Novartis-Africa Mobility Programme was inspired by the Novartis “Next Generation Scientist Program” (see poster by Akiko Keller et al.) and has been successfully running for three years.
Eleven researchers have been enrolled since the inception of the programme. Their projects focused on dissecting the genetics and molecular mechanisms of diseases affecting African populations, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis or other infectious and non-communicable diseases. The poster will highlight the professional and personal impact on the careers of select fellows. A seminal joint workshop and symposium entitled “Genomics on the Move” was held at Wits in Johannesburg in 2015 involving all fellows and presenting ongoing scientific collaborations between the CRG and the African scientists, to support long term partnerships and to promote the programme.
Themes
- Developing a pipeline of research talent, including widening participation, strategies to attract and retain research talent, and approaches to mainstreaming equality and diversity for researchers in the research environment
- Leadership development of early career researchers including researchers’ as leaders in different disciplines
- Researcher development across boundaries including international collaborations, inter-cultural competences, international researchers’ experiences, business/industry collaborations and engaging society through open research.
Key Messages
- How public-private cooperation can boost capabilities of early career African researchers
- Supporting sustainable scientific research focusing on diseases relevant to African populations
- Example of successful international collaboration and scientist mobility
Community building through education: the PRBB Intervals Programme
Presenters: Elinor M Thompson (Consultant) & Eroteida Jimenez (Manager)
Organisation: CPD (Intervals Programme), Barcelona Biomedical Research Park
Outline
The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) consists of 7 scientific centres under one roof. Each centre is entirely independent but shares a common physical space in the PRBB, so staff belong to a single community while having different corporate affiliations. Each PRBB centre shares the need to develop a flexible, responsive workforce and the imperative to promote a culture of good scientific practice. A cross-institutional programme, known as the "Intervals Programme", was developed by the Park directorate to promote a culture of values and integrity throughout the community while simultaneously providing key skills training in leadership and communication.
Programme features that help promote culture and community-building include:-
- Programme name, quality and branding create a recognisable identity.
- Training, in two languages, is available for all staff (scientific and non-scientific) at all levels.
- Targeted options for senior investigators as well as graduate students and post-docs.
- Senior investigators are trainers or assessors on some courses, creating reciprocity and enhancing senior-junior relationships.
- Peer mentoring programme offers support for senior and mid-grade staff.
- Programme is embedded in other community-wide initiatives promoting research integrity.
Themes
- Engaging research leaders, principal investigators and supervisors to transform professional development of researchers and embed professional development in the research environment
- Leadership development of early career researchers including researchers’ as leaders in different disciplines.
Key Messages
- A transferable skills education programme can have effects that are broader reaching than the sum of a series of courses for individuals.
- These effects include creating a values-based culture and sense of community, rooted in reciprocity and relationship building, collaboration and sharing.
- Keys to achieving these cultural and community effects include: the creation of a recognisable programme identity that is synonymous with high quality training, the potential for all staff in the research community to participate equally in training irrespective of background, corporate affiliation or career level and involvement of senior researchers as both trainers and course participants.
Learning by doing: internships in research management
Presenters: Dr Sonja Reiland, Scientific Project Manager; Dr Natalia Dave Coll, Scientific Project Manager
Organisation: Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona
Outline
It is well recognized that young scientists require training in transferable skills to progress in their professional careers. Whether they aim to become independent investigators in academia, project leaders in industry, or research managers, gaining soft skills and complementary abilities enhances their competitive advantage in each career step. Courses in transferable skills are widely available at Universities and Research Centres, and easily complemented with external workshops and online courses. However, researchers lack opportunities to apply learned skills outside their experimental work, which would effectively boost their abilities and also their CV.
The International and Scientific Affairs (ISA) team at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) offers short internships to the institute’s PhD students, postdocs and technicians. The ISA team provides support to the CRG director and faculty on internationalization, institutional collaboration, scientific project management, training, academic management, policy making, and strategic planning. Young researchers with a genuine interest in one of these areas can approach the team and jointly propose a project to be developed under the supervision of ISA team members, and carried out in a flexible framework to allow the interns to continue their current principal job and research. Thanks to the internship, young scientists have the opportunity to explore new professional paths, gain skills and self-confidence, work hand-by-hand with experienced research managers and expand their networks.
Here we present success stories aiming to be inspirational for other institutions to implement a similar model. The outcome of these internships is highly valuable both for the interns and for the team (obtaining support on specific tasks from outstanding and highly-motivated individuals). Remarkably, some of our alumni interns have already succeeded in obtaining competitive job positions as research managers.
Themes
- Engaging research leaders, principal investigators and supervisors to transform professional development of researchers and embed professional development in the research environment
- Leadership development of early career researchers including researchers’ as leaders in different disciplines
- Researcher development across boundaries including international collaborations, inter-cultural competences, international researchers’ experiences, business/industry collaborations and engaging society through open research.
Key Messages
Young researchers have access to training on transferable skills but lack opportunities to apply learned skills outside their experimental work. We offer short research management internships to our PhD students, postdocs, and technicians.
Model for Research-focused Faculty Development at a Mexican Private Institution
Presenters: Gabriela Torres Delgado, Academic Development Director; Vice-presidency of Research Postgraduate Studies; Miguel Angel Romero Ogawa, Academic Director, Vice-presidency of Research Postgraduate Studies.
Organisation: Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
Outline
We designed a teacher development model that is based on an inventory of competence that originates from three dimensions: professor, research professor and professor linked. The model includes 14 sub-competences and 67 elements of competence. The purpose of the model is to identify the teachers’ competence through self-assessment and the evaluation of their leader in order to recognize the needs of teachers. In this way, with this information the teacher can build an individual development plan.
Themes
- Engaging research leaders, principal investigators and supervisors to transform professional development of researchers and embed professional development in the research environment
- Evaluation and impact studies of researchers’ careers to further our understanding and knowledge of the researcher career landscape in UK and internationally
- New and successful ways of supporting researchers’ mobility including international, inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary and virtual mobility
- Researcher development within structured doctoral programmes, including perspectives on doctoral training centres/ partnerships, Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) and other cohort based models; including European and international collaborations and organisational benefits and challenges in managing diverse researchers’ experiences
Key Messages
- A designed teacher development model
- new dimensions
- elements of competence
