Vitae Connections Week 2020 reflections

The UK Research Staff Association (UKRSA) committee members reflect on Vitae Connections Week 2020

Reflections from Blanca Perez Sepulveda, UKRSA Recruitment and engagement officer & Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Liverpool

This was my first time participating in Vitae Connections week, which for me started a week before during the “Connecting #Researchers” Twitter chat that I helped co-host with Rachel Cox. It was really interesting to engage with people across the UK and learn about their different experiences during these very strange times.

Starting Vitae Connections Week I had the opportunity of helping facilitate a #ReimagineResearch Café Culture led by the UKRSA Co-Chair Dr Anjali Shah. During this session I had the chance to talk to researchers and researcher developers about ways in which we could improve the current culture. It was a very fruitful conversation, and it was a unique opportunity for me to hear new ideas that I believe would have a huge impact on how we approach research culture.

I was also invited to participate as a panel member in the session “Invisible support: what do researchers think of the careers support available to them?”. This session felt like a very honest conversation in which we could talk to researcher developers about good (and sometimes not so good) practices that have helped us develop throughout our career.

Overall, Vitae Connections week was a very positive experience to establish a dialogue about our current culture and how we would like to shape it.

Reflections from Dr Angela Midgley, UKRSA Recruitment and engagement officer & Research Staff Developer, University of Liverpool

As a new(ish) research staff developer having started my role in December 2019, I participated in the Vitae Connections event this year for the first time and I was really looking forward to gaining insight and learning from other people’s practice. Having provided on demand content too around Researcher networks, I was also excited to engage and network with those attending the conference.

Keynotes from UKRI CEO Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser and Minister Amanda Solloway ## started the week as you would hope, inspiring me to think further on how I can support researchers to be a part of “a creative and vibrant research and innovation system” by empowering those involved in increasing connectivity.

The stand out session for me was by Dr Kieran Fenby-Hulse on Equality, diversity and inclusion and why it won’t wait. A session that not only provided me with a deeper understanding of the importance of EDI within Research but also made me laugh, cry and sing! It is indeed true that people may forget what you said but people will never forget how you made them feel.

The post reflections and networking session was a great way to informally chat and meet other attendees, I left the week with a million notes, some great ideas and feeling very “connected”.

Reflections from Dr Saneeya Qureshi, UKRSA committee member, Co-Chair of the Vitae Researcher Networks Working Group and Head of Researcher Development and Culture, University of Liverpool

This year’s Vitae Connections event was an incredibly useful opportunity to reframe and reconsider researcher development and the nourishment of researcher networks in the face of the global crisis we're currently facing.

The plenary sessions in particular, provided rich and diverse opportunities to re-imagine and re-describe how we consider the research ecosystem and our early career researchers who are at the heart of it.

My key take-away from the event has been underscoring the importance of researchers as people, as connectors, as collaborators, as innovators, and why the efforts of the Researcher Networks Working Group are more important than ever.

Read more about the activities of Vitae's Researcher Networks Working Group.

Reflections from Dr Anjali Shah, Co-Chair of UKRSA and Researcher and Researcher Developer at the University of Oxford

This was my third Vitae conference and I was wondering how the move to an online format would work. The whole event exceeded my expectations and was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Huge thanks go to the Vitae team for making it such a success!

I was impressed by the introductory messages from Amanda Solloway (Minister for Science, Research and Innovation) and Professor Ottoline Leyser (new CEO of UKRI). It was clear from the Minister’s speech that she really understands the high level of talent of people working in research in the UK, but also that current systems and culture mean that many leave research altogether because there are slim changes of gaining secure, permanent employment. She acknowledged the bullying and harassment that exists and wants to promote a culture of wellbeing. She noted that funding needs to become diverse and sustainable, and that we need better metrics for evaluating research: https://bit.ly/32wMoUA .

Professor Leyser’s message shows that she intends to tackle problems with equality, diversity and inclusion, and address the huge appetite for change across the sector, which are most welcome: https://bit.ly/33L8QbT

The clear highlight for me was the (ED)I Won’t Wait: a Research Culture Cabaret by Dr Kieron Fenby-Hulse that took the online experience to a new level because it involved song, dance, costume and poetry. It was a work of genius that brought home points about this topic that are so often given a nod but rarely tackled properly. As a BME woman with a hidden disability, I was moved to hear someone else demand change.

I was proud of my UKRSA colleagues for the range of activities they led at the conference from Twitter chats to posters to having an Exhibitor Booth. I hosted a Wellcome Improving Research Culture Café with support from these colleagues, and you will hear more about this soon.