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EARLI SIG 24 workshop on "Fostering researcher independence"


October 1st, 2024

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Last week, the EARLI SIG 24 Workshop 2024 took place from 25 to 27 September at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) in Leiden, the Netherlands. 25 researchers from 10 different countries came together to work on fostering researcher independence.

The theme of this year's workshop was "Fostering researcher independence: What are the educational and professional development consequences in doctoral context?". After a warm welcome from CWTS director of Culture and Inclusion, Tjitske Holtrop, and SIG24 coordinator and senior researcher at CWTS, Inge van der Weijden, the workshop began with interactive keynotes. The first keynote was given by Kay Guccione, head of Research Culture & Researcher Development & Co-Director of the Lab for Academic Culture at the University of Glasgow, UK. She shared her perspective on the experience of increasing independence in a research career context. She argued that growth in independence can be linked to sensemaking and internal personal work as much as to external validation and interconnectedness. In this way, it might add value to the doctorate and is an issue of the research culture.


Participant: "With participants from both Europe and Asia, the workshop gave me a global perspective on researcher independence."
 

The second keynote was given by Isabelle Skakni, head of the doctoral training office at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Western Switzerland and Kelsey Inouye, research associate at the University of Oxford, UK. They discussed research independence in times of uncertainty by arguing that independence is a key resource in both career decision-making processes and career transitions. Furthermore, they presented ways to empower PhD graduates in navigating careers beyond academia.


Participant: "As manager of doctoral education programs, it’s important to have a link with SIG24 researchers and state of the art knowledge on researcher independence."
 

After the keynotes, the participants worked in break-out groups to explore potential shared research interests and ideas. On the final day of the workshop, each group reported a mind map and an outline for considerations for a potential research project.

Next steps

As a result of the workshop, six potential research projects on the topic of fostering researcher independence were identified. As a follow-up, the SIG24 members will continue to collaborate on these research projects in the coming year. Their collective aim is to publish the outcomes of their research projects as a special issue in the journal ‘Innovations in Education and Teaching International Instructions’ (IETI).

About: SIG24 - Researcher Education and Careers

The SIG24 - Researcher Education and Careers group is part of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), an international, scientific community with the primary goal to support an active research culture in learning and instruction. The SIG aims to promote research and theory development in the area of researcher education and careers, both academic and non-academic. It aspires to encourage, recognise and support innovative research-based practices that better prepare future researchers for their careers, and thus address priorities in graduate and postgraduate education and training.

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