'The U21 Sustainable Futures workshop was a valuable initiative to explore how multidisciplinary research should be. It showcased new ways to disseminate findings, present work and establish networking opportunities.'
Dr Ivano Bongiovanni (Adam Smith Business School)
U21 Early Career Researcher Workshop
Supporting and nurturing the career of early career researchers is an important new part of U21 work and one that Glasgow fully supports.
Each year a member of the U21 network hosts an ECR workshop. Glasgow offers a minimum of two funded places to attend, including workshop costs, accommodation and travel expenses.
Applications are now closed for the ‘Water in Society’ workshop at Lund University.
Contact
For further information, please contact International Networks Coordinator: Externalrelations-u21network@glasgow.ac.uk
2019 ECR workshop - 'Water in Society' (Lund University)
Dates: 19 to 22 of November
Applications are now closed
Location: Lund University, Sweden
Further information: U21 ECR 2019
Workshop theme
The theme for the event is ‘Water in Society’ which aims to deepen participants’ understanding of how research impacts on water and sustainability globally. Lund University is home to LUWater, a multidisciplinary, cross-faculty network that brings together researchers working in the field of 'water'. Research areas may include (but are not limited to):
- human rights and the ethics of water;
- hydro-solidarity and hydro-politics and peacebuilding;
- sustainable urban management and development;
- water-energy-food nexus and circular economy; and
- water, environment and law.
Eligibility
Early career academics from all disciplines are welcome to join. You should have been awarded your PhD within the last 8 years. This definition is flexible however, so please get in touch if you have any questions, particularly if you fall outside the ECR definition, due to an atypical career path. This could include those who have started the research-intensive component of their career later or had career breaks or spent time in industry.
Candidates who can apply can include those employed full or part-time at University of Glasgow.
Funding
The University of Glasgow will make a contribution of £1000 towards the cost of travel and accommodation. Registration will cover the costs of the conference, associated events and tours, and most meals (i.e. daytime refreshments/lunch/most dinners). There may be an occasional free evening, when you will require spending money to cover the cost of evening meals.
Nominated attendees will be responsible for arranging their own travel, travel insurance and health insurance. Please note that the University of Glasgow will NOT increase the amount of funding should additional subsistence expenses be incurred during the student’s period of travel.
If for any reason a nominee cannot attend, the award must be refunded to the University in full.
Summary of 2018 ECR workshop (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Sustainable Futures' focus on environmental sustainability
October 2018, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
The University funded two Early Career Researchers to attend this event: Ivano Bongiovanni (Adam Smith Business School) and Long Chen (Urban Big Data). Below is a summary of the event.
Valuable multidisciplinary collaboration
The U21 Sustainable Futures workshop was attended by nearly 60 researchers from across the U21 network who joined distinguished speakers including Professor Yong Geng (Dean, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, SJTU) and Professor Christoph Stückelberger (Executive Director, Geneva Agape Foundation) and Professor Fujita Tsuyoshi (Director of the Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research, National Institution for Environmental Studies, Japan).
After keynote speeches, half of the participants delivered engaging lightning talks. This quick format emphasised the importance for academics to be able to reach out to non-expert audiences and show the value of their work on topics such as
- climate change,
- environmental issues in the digital age,
- usage of digital technologies to protect the environment,
- fighting animal poaching, etc.
Later, there were more traditional research presentations and a poster session. Within the Smart Cities theme, University of Glasgow academic, Ivano presented his research project entitled 'Chasing Storms in the Tornado Alley: Information Security Management in Higher Education', receiving valuable feedback.
The event took place in several locations including the Antai College of Economics and Management, the Minghang campus of Jiao Tong University, in south Shanghai and a visit to the Chronus Art Center to see the exhibition 'Machines are Not Alone' showcasing works associated with sustainability and technology.
Finally, there was a group team activity on innovative ways of tackling environmental issues. The workshop was concluded by a final, more general discussion on the future of the academic profession, from the perspective of early career researchers.
Upon return, Ivano reflected:
“Although the event did not focus entirely on my research areas – information security management and design-led innovation –it gave me the opportunity to explore how multidisciplinary research should be, stretching out to topics that enrich our approaches to academic investigation.
The workshop confirmed the need for academia to ‘push’ research and make it as practical as possible, exploring new ways of disseminating findings, presenting work, and establishing networking opportunities. We have the freedom to work on the topics that we are passionate about and we need to reach out to colleagues and establish synergies for real-world, high-impact research.
Shanghai is an amazing city, vibrant, modern and traditional at the same time, and I think it was a great choice for this workshop. I established two interesting connections with Jiao Tong University and the University of Johannesburg, which I hope will help me develop a project on ‘the future of higher education’ on which I am currently working.”
Previous U21 ECR workshops
Previous ECR workshops
| Year | Theme | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 'Sustainable Futures' focus on environmental sustainability | Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
| 2017 | Interculturality and Multiculturalism: the challenges for changing societies | Pontificia Universidad de Catolica |
| 2015 | Innovation and Entrepreneurship | University College Dublin |