ACADEMIC
REGENER8’S EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS’ NETWORK – ONE YEAR ON By Mike Raxworthy, Operations Director at Regener8
In the 2013 issue of Regen I introduced a proposal to launch a new membership stream specifically for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) working in Regenerative Medicine and Medical Technologies. Reviewing this one year on, it is clear that this has been one of the highlights of Regener8’s year – something for which those ECRs that have got involved must take the credit! Every well-run organisation needs a steering group. OK, not a statement that would meet with universal agreement but in this case those that stepped forward to form the initial steering group (from Sheffield, York, Leeds, Loughborough, Glasgow, Cardiff and Manchester) have enabled a solid start to be made and a clear course to be set. This group have been meeting every 3 months to propose and plan activities, to share information on the various opportunities available to ECRs and feedback thoughts to the Regener8 team on what would be most valued by fellow ECRs. The first major ECR event of 2014 was the “Regenerative Medicine Careers: How to choose and secure your dream career” workshop. Regener8 was delighted to complement the excellent organisation provided by the EPSRC
Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine and cohost an event attracting a large number of ECRs to hear about career paths in industry (large companies, SMEs, start-ups), academia (technology transfer and research fellowships) and in regulatory affairs. The event also provided ECRs with a CV clinic at which feedback was contributed by mentors with industry experience. It is hoped that this event can be repeated using a similar format in 2015. A review of the workshop has been produced1 as well as an Opinion article in Orthopaedic Product News by Sophie Dale-Black2. More recently, Regener8 has set up a programme of visits to member companies. The scheme was launched in July by a visit to Smith & Nephew’s Research Centre in York. This, and the other planned visits, aimed to provide an opportunity for ECRs to pitch their work to leading companies working in the development of novel regenerative therapies and for ECRs to learn about the priorities and ways of working of these companies. Using a format that we expect to work equally well with other companies, the visit included presentations from Smith and Nephew (S&N), a tour of the Research Centre and the opportunity for networking with
References 1 http://www.epsrc-regen-med.org/news/review-of-the-first-national-regenerative-medicine-careers-event/ 2 http://www.opnews.com/article/careers-in-the-developing-regenerative-medicine-sector/#&panel1-1 3 http://www.regener8.ac.uk/latest-news/art/479/researchers-present-their-work-to-regenmed-innovators.htm
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S&N staff. Three of the party of seven were selected by Regener8 to make a brief presentation on their own current research work to S&N. One of the party, Tom Heathman from Loughborough University, observed, “It was a great insight into S&N. Touring the facilities was really useful in seeing what equipment S&N have and what they do with it, and networking with employees gives us very useful exposure and will help scope out job opportunities.” A more detailed report can be found on the Regener8 website3. We have had positive responses from a number of other member companies approached about similar visits and expect to be able to publish a programme running through to July 2015 at this year’s Regener8 conference. As we intend to keep the size of the ECR visiting group small, please do get in touch if you would like to register your interest. Further reflections on these and other events and initiatives in which Regener8 ECR members have been involved will be made from the platform during the 2014 Regener8 conference. For further information visit: www.regener8.ac.uk/