We held our postdoc webinar this week with over 125 people online watching – did you catch it? Or maybe you followed along on Twitter? If you did you will have heard all the great tips and advice our panellists gave out for developing your postdoc careers in mental health research – whatever that looks like for you.
Thank you to our panelists Dr. Rachael Kelley, Dr. Ruchika Gajwani, Professor Ian Maidment and Dr. Josefien Breedvelt, along with Q&A host Bea, Parisa Mansoori from MQ and the NIHR team.
If you missed the live event, have no fear, here are some highlights:
- A career in research is not linear and there is no single correct path to take. This was a point mentioned by every member of the panel, and in fact is highlighted through the careers of our panellists, who have all come to mental health research in slightly different ways.
- Network and collaborate – working with others for your own projects, and working on others projects are all good and meaningful parts of a research career. However, you do need to ensure that you work with people who align with your interests and goals, and that you keep track of your research outputs.
- Our researcher community map is a great place so start finding people who work in your field or near you
- There are quite a few resources out there for networking
- Interdisciplinary work can be highly beneficial.
- There are different funding sources out there – it does not have to be just about the fellowships.
- Small grants can be great on their own or as a stepping stone in preparation for a larger grant.
- A rejected application is not a waste. Several of the speakers mentioned this. You can get feedback on the grant, recycle it for future applications and maintain any collaborations you established while writing it.
- Do have a watch of a presentation Rachael Kelley did for us a few weeks ago which contains advice on the topic of funding applications and more.
You can see our live Tweet thread over here on our Twitter account.
If this has whet your appetite and you want more, the recording of the webinar will be available on NIHR’s TV channel on YouTube here.
Finally, don’t forget to check out our new postdoc page which contains a handy compendium of relevant posts from all over our site.
What are your top tips for postdoc mental health researchers? Give us a shout on Twitter to let us know!