painSTAR Delegate Report

Author: Dr Mitchell Gibbs

Mitchell is a Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences, Discipline of Exercise Physiology at the University of New South Wales. Mitchell’s research aims at helping people with chronic pain by understanding how to best design biopsychosocial exercise interventions, and, how to disseminate these approaches into practice.

painSTAR Report:

The main goal for me attending painSTAR was to collaborate with Early/Mid Career Researchers (E/MCs) and gain insight from the faculty for my future in research. The faculty, and invited speakers, provided great insights to navigating research and linking different themes of science. A main focus was the integration of basic and clinical sciences, which opened my eyes to a world of possibility moving forward. One of the other delegates was a basic science researcher in Sydney, so I have organised to go to their lab and learn more about basic science and look to see how we can help each other in future. This is an opportunity that would not have come about without painSTAR.

It is very hard to pick only a few key moments at painSTAR as it truly was a one of a kind experience. One of the best aspects was the small group nature of the conference. Being able to have dinner with keynote speakers, something that doesn’t happen at bigger conferences. Additionally, it also made for a better environment to connect and collaborate with other delegates more than in a larger conference, for example I had breakfast with someone different every day, so it was a great way to get to know everyone. Some highlights of the program for me were the consumer presentations and the discussion around how to authentically engage consumers in the research process. Additionally, Associate Professor Tasha Stanton’s ‘Choose your own adventure: Why the things that don’t necessarily help your CV might be the most important’ keynote was inspiring and helped to contextualise things to focus on as an ECR, which was invaluable advice!

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As a result of painSTAR, I have already begun to collaborate with other delegates on a research project, which is an opportunity that may have otherwise not presented and I think is owing to the small-group environment. I am very grateful to have been a part of the inaugural painSTAR and would highly recommend it to anyone considering applying.

Declaration

The author has nothing to declare.