There are several active researcher and research staff societies across the University. Link in with your local group. Current Research Staff Societies College Researcher Society College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine BioQuater PostDoc Society [Facebook login required] x: @BQPDS George Square PostDoc Society [Your University Login required] x: @g2_pd Institute of Cancer & Genetics POst Doctoral Society (PODS) x: @IGC_PODS Roslin/Easter Bush Committee College of Science & Engineering School of Biological Sciences: BioDocSoc email: biodocsoc-committee@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk x: @UoEBioDocSoc School of Chemistry: Post-doc Committee email: chempostdoc-committee@ed.ac.uk x: @EdiChemPostdocs School of Engineering: PDRA Forum email: pdra.forum.eng@ed.ac.uk School of Geosciences: Research Staff Organisation email: researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk School of Informatics: Research Staff Society Setting up a Research Staff Society Before you consider setting up a society, check if there are any existing societies in your School/Centre that you could join. If there isn't a current society, the videos at the link below from other society members might give you some useful tips on how to set up a society and how to deal with common challenges, as well as where to find funding. Setting up a society Post-doc Appreciation Week Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) is a celebration of the fantastic contribution postdocs and researchers make towards research and academic life in general. It's a special time to showcase, recognise, and celebrate their efforts, and thank them for all they do! In 2024, PAW is taking place from Monday 16 September to Friday 20 September. For more information on what is happening at the University of Edinburgh during this week, have a look at our Post-doc Appreciation Week webpage: Post-doc Appreciation Week Leadership Resources for Researcher Representatives A suite of leadership resources are now available to download, which support different areas researchers will come across in representative roles. The aim of these resources are to support individuals to develop the relevant skills to make the most of their roles, recognise the contribution they make to the University and help sustain and develop representative structures. When we refer to researcher representatives we are including postgraduate researchers and early career research staff who take on roles that involve sitting on and actively contributing to committees, leading and running researcher-led societies and organising events and developing initiatives as part of their research group, School/Institute. There are 4 resources available: Making the Most of your Position Negotiation & Stakeholders Communicaton Influencing Leadership Resources and Coaching for Researcher Representatives Guide for running Concordat events A PDF guide for research staff societies interested in running a Concordat focused event. The guide provides a structure and outline of a session that could be run at a School/College level to raise awareness of the Concordat, its progress at Edinburgh and to identify what is happening, or could happen, at local levels to support its implementation Guide for running Concordat events Long-term Research Staff Network The Long-term research staff network is for research staff who have been on research-only fixed-term (or open-ended subject to funding) contracts for more than 8 years in total. The 8 years do not have to be consecutive and do not have to have been at the University of Edinburgh. For example, you may have had a career break or only been at the university for 1 year and spent more than 8 years on fixed-term contracts elsewhere. The aims of this network are to provide 1) a forum for LTRS to exchange stories, contacts, ideas, advice, etc 2) a space to organize talks, discussions or debates around themes specific to long-term or career researchers and that can be open to non-group members. Long-term Research Staff Network on Teams Blog post on the creation of the Long-term Research Staff Network Long-term Research Staff Peer Reviewed Research Article Long-term research staff survey: preliminary results from closed-ended questions This article was published on 2022-11-17
