Abstract

In this Pecha Kucha we will tell you about the support that we, a pre-award team of 5 research advisors at the University of Coimbra (UC) in Portugal, have been crafting for early career researchers.

Answering the need to provide a compass for the national and international navigation of R&D funding landscape, to train early-stage researchers in science management skills and to guide career path definition have been the main motivations to prepare specific support.

First, we began being contacted by research centres at the UC to design tailor-made training sessions for early-stage researchers. Acquiring the scientific independence level that is required in order to achieve the goal of many of our youngest and newest research centre members of securing one’s own funding and becoming a PI in an international collaborative project is not straightforward. We realized that our experience in research management could be valuable in giving tips for the next steps of early-stage career researchers.

Over the last 3 years, there was also a lot of interest coming from departments, research centres and the academical association of doctoral students in hearing about the strategies and tips we collected applied to PhD candidates.

Our presentation will cover the topics that we consider most important to bring to early-stage career training sessions. We will also share the supporting activities we consider most beneficial to follow-up early interest.

Additionally, our team was invited to contribute to the new master’s degree in Psychological Sciences with modules to the course "Science Management and Funding Procurement" running for the first time in fall 2023. We will share with you how we designed the modules of the course to be an entry point to research management at the master’s level. We want to discuss the strategies we tried, what worked and which challenges we faced.

Subject to this year’s theme “The Future of RMA in a rapidly changing world”, we will reflect about what we, as RMAs, can do to help boost early-stage researchers’ careers. Moreover, from the perspective of a public University in the central region of a Widening country, away from the capital, what factors do we rely on to be considered by international talented researchers at the beginning of their careers? What can we offer them?

We see the contribution of RMA to courses such as "Science Management and Funding Procurement" as an effective way to transfer knowledge gained in our workflows to the soon-to-be academics or RMAs of tomorrow. We want to locally equip our students with the tools on science management that can make a positive impact to their global careers.