Researcher Realities - Researcher Career Journeys

Dr Annie Irvine, Postdoctoral Research Associate, ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King’s College London

Dr Annie Irvine is a qualitative researcher with interests in mental health, employment and welfare policy. Annie's 22-year research career includes roles in academic departments and non-academic research organisations, commissioned research for government departments and third-sector organisations, and grant-funded academic research for ESRC and NIHR. Since taking up her first research post in 2001, she has held fixed-term, permanent and freelance contracts, been made redundant twice, and had three years on maternity leave within a five-year period (which had its consequences). She obtained a PhD by Publication in 2015, drawing on her research on the complexities of managing common mental health problems in the workplace.

Dr Cecile Menard, Research Associate, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh.

Dr Cecile Menard is an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in snow modelling. Cecile started her journey in Higher Education as a mature undergraduate student at the age of 28, obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2010, worked as a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and returned to the UK in 2015 as an independent scientist. She has been at the School of Geosciences since 2017 and was seconded to the Institute for Academic Development to investigate precarious employment among researchers.

Dr Andrew Schurer, Chancellor’s Fellow, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh.

Dr Andrew Schurer is a climate scientist who has been working at the University of Edinburgh for over 13 years, with research focusing on disentangling the various causes of past climate change in order to better constrain future projections. He has then been employed on a series of research grants before becoming appointed as a Chancellor’s Fellow in 2019.

Dr Eilidh Garrett, Senior Researcher, University of Edinburgh / Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research.

Dr Eilidh Garrett joined the University of Edinburgh as a senior researcher at the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research during the first week of lockdown, 2020. Prior to that she had spent 30 years as a contract researcher in a number of universities across the UK moving across the disciplinary gaps between history, geography, and population studies.

Researcher Career Journeys, Q&A