Young researchers driving FLEET’s training program
FLEET students and ECRs identifying and driving Centre training priorities
The ECR Working Group ensures that students and other Centre ECRs' voices are heard, and that their needs are met, in terms of the development programs delivered within the Centre.
The ECR Working Group is led by PhD students Abigail Goff (RMIT) and Vivasha Govinden (UNSW) along with Mark Edmonds from Monash, and Maedehsadat Mousavi, Dan Sando, Abhay Gupta and Marcus Goffage from UNSW.
Support for Working Group initiatives has been confirmed by the FLEET Executive Committee, which has provided the Group with a $10,000 dedicated annual budget to be used for ECR – and student-organised activities that support:
- Facilitating exchange of research ideas
- Enhancing scientific skills
- Expanding members’ professional skills toolkit
- Extending professional and research networks.
The Working Group delivers quarterly updates to the FLEET Executive Committee on its activities.
A major current focus of the Working Group is the planning of an ECR Conference, to be run in conjunction to the major FLEET meeting in mid-2022. Comprehensive surveying of FLEET students and members has identified a suit of possible development to be delivered at the 2022 workshop, including sharing PhD tips and tricks, research sharing exercises, and industry skills.
Such surveying ensures that training program meets the needs of FLEET students and ECRs. Another survey in early 2022 will specifically track translation and industry-related training needs.
PhD candidate Abigail Goff (RMIT) co-leads the ECR Working Group with Vivasha Govinden (UNSW), shown in banner image above
The Group ran its first workshop in 2019. In 2020, they responded to Covid by moving from a planned in-person workshop to an collating online resources, to help members develop and continue to progress during pandemic conditions in 2020-21.
Since initiation, the Group has:
- Organised an ECR workshop in mid-2019
- Successfully lobbied for a collaborative travel grant scheme implemented in 2019 and a training grant scheme implemented in 2020
- Established a library of resources to build research and professional skills during Covid
- Secured training grants of up to $500 per member from the FLEET Education and Training Committee
- Surveyed Centre students to set training program to be delivered at dedicated ECR Conference ‘for the ECRs and by the ECRs’ in mid 2022.
We believe that this type of committee is most effective when driven by ECRs and students themselves, rather than by the Centre management, and FLEET has been encouraging our young researchers to join the existing working group.
Prof Jared Cole FLEET Education and Training Committee Chair
FLEET’s ECRs and students also drive Centre activities and policy through their involvement in all five of the Centre’s special governance committees. This involvement in the Centre governance ensure that the views and needs of these cohorts are properly integrated into Centre strategy.
Presence on multiple committees also ensures proper movement of ideas from committee to committee. For example, suggestions developed in the Industry Relations Committee were able to be passed on the Education and Training Committee for implementation.