Standing Up for Standing Out

‘Standing Up for Standing Out’ will be chaired by Professor Susan Wray FMedSci, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, University of Liverpool; Co-Director of the Harris-Wellbeing Centre for Preterm Research and Director of the Centre of Better Births in Liverpool Women's Hospital. The keynote speaker will be Professor Deborah Ashby OBE FMedSci, Professor of Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials, and Director of the School of Public Health, Imperial College London.

Influencing and standing out are skills often overlooked by career development provisions. As a response to this, Professor Susan Wray FMedSci is calling for early career researchers from different disciplines and institutions across the North West to come together and work on the so-called ‘soft’ skill of communicating your research well and winning people (funders, employers, and team members) over.

To do this, there will be a skills workshop from scientist-turned-stand up comedian Dr Steve Cross, where participants will have a chance to chat about the funny side of their research. Professor Deborah Ashby OBE FMedSci will be joining us to deliver a keynote speech ‘The Importance of Outliers’ about her career path in medical statistics, including those times in her career when she has been an ‘outlier’, and where that has taken her. The career development event will culminate in a panel discussion where attendees will have the opportunity to ask Academy Fellows for advice and guidance on how to go about overcoming any barriers that they are currently experiencing in their research, in their institution or in the scientific community more widely.

Standing Up for Standing Out is a responsive career development event designed to empower early career biomedical and health researchers to stand out and get their research noticed.  

To book a place at Standing Up for Standing Out, or the North West Fellows' event, please fill in the form on the right hand side of this page. Early career researchers are expected to attend from 12:00 – 19:30 for both the career development event and the evening reception. Academy Fellows are welcome for the whole day, or can arrive at 17:30 for the North West Fellows’ evening event. Please email ruth.lowe@acmedsci.ac.uk with any queries about this.

The full agenda will be published here shortly.

 The event will be immediately followed by a North West Fellows’ Evening to foster connections between early career researchers and Academy Fellows from around the North West. The networking celebration event will feature speeches from Professor Sue Wray FMedSci, the Academy’s outgoing North West regional champion, and the incoming North West regional champion. This will offer North West Fellows and early career researchers a chance to meet the new Academy Fellows in the North West and for the regional Fellows to develop stronger connections with each other. This will run from 17:30 until 19:30.

Our Career Development events are for pre- and post-doctoral biomedical and health researchers, to give practical skills and the chance to network with colleagues. They also offer clinical academic trainees help in navigating the clinical academic training pathway and developing a research career.  Our Regional Fellows events aim to increase connectivity amongst Fellows, raise awareness of the Academy’s work amongst the broader biomedical community, and facilitate engagement between the Academy and the Fellowship. The Academy has established a network of Regional Champions to build on the already strong sense of collegiality across the Fellowship.

Please note that babies are welcome for the whole event and Academy staff will be on hand to help anyone who is bringing their baby.

Access information for the event venue, the Foresight Centre, Liverpool, can be found here. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email ruth.lowe@acmedsci.ac.uk.