The theme of the 2024 ECR Network Colloquium held at Â鶹Íø was ‘A Connected Wales: Developing your Career as a Researcher in Wales and Beyond’. The event was organised by the LSW’s Early Career Researchers Network Colloquium. This was an invaluable opportunity for some of the School of History, Law and Social Sciences’ ECRs to present their work and engage in beneficial discussions.
Ms Lois Nash, who is a lecturer in Law and currently working on a PhD project exploring the legal and ethical implications of euthanasia, delivered an 8-minute flash lecture on her topic and spurred on many engaging discussions. Commenting on the event, Lois said ‘It was a good experience to present my research to researchers in various fields, and in such a concise way.’
, a PhD researcher with the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates (ISWE), delivered talk on his doctoral project, highlighting how the area of Eryri has evolved significantly, in terms of archaeology, culture, geography and language.
Alex's presentation charted the changing perceptions of Eryri over the last 300 years to today, where Eryri is held as ecologically vital and culturally significant. However, its landscapes and biodiversity are changing whilst becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and biodiversity loss. This fact is compounded by historically narrow perceptions and expectations of Eryri that perpetuate limited systemic ways of thinking. Additionally, current decision-making structures are extremely fragmented, insufficiently democratised and lack space for imagination. His interdisciplinary doctoral research project is interrogating the embedded politics, power relations, and responsibilities connected to Dyffryn Ogwen and is exploring new imaginings that would support place-led adaptation. His project seeks to inform Welsh Government policy and legislation to build place-based collaborations and adopt multidisciplinary methods within ‘place planning’ approaches. With this, he drew on local interviews and archival material from Â鶹Íø Archives."
Following the colloquium, Alex commented, "The Learned Society of Wales and Â鶹Íø hosted brilliantly. The set of flash talks I was part of were really interesting and really showed meaningful ways in which Wales can achieve the Well-being Goals through applying research and real-world collaborations."
In addition, our Professor Martina Feilzer chaired a panel on grant writing, which was an informative and insightful session. The panel members consisted of:
- Professor Shelagh Malham, Professor in Marine Biology, Director of Research School of Ocean Sciences, Dean Research College of Science and Engineering, Â鶹Íø.
- Professor Simon Hands (FLSW), Professor of Theoretical Physics and Community Development Director, DiRAC High-Performance Computing, Liverpool University. LSW ECR Advisory Group member.
- Dominic Parkes, Research-Development Bid Writer and Editor in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science at Swansea University
- Dr Christie Smith, Research Development Manager, Integrated Research and Impact Support (IRIS), Â鶹Íø.
- Dr Fiona Dakin, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Learned Society of Wales.
- Shreya Choudhury, Research Funding Officer, British Academy.
The excellent discussion was spurred on by three key question:
• How to identify appropriate funding opportunities and plan your application?
• How to write a competitive and compelling application?
• How are applications assessed and what happens next?
The audience responded well and reflecting on the discussion, Professor Feilzer said, ‘I definitely learned something from the panel and hope the format worked for the audience too. The LSW did a great job in organising speakers and the formats of the day.’
To read more about the contributors of the colloquium, see the accompanying .