Improving your research profile and digital footprint

Published: 20 July 2018

A recent IHW-led event guided early career researchers on how to improve their digital footprint, engage effectively with an online audience, and consider the online life-cycle of their research

‌‌On 11 July 2018, ECRF members, Dr Baylan and Dr Baba organised ‘Improving your research profile and digital footprint’, a public engagement (PE) training event for early career researchers (ECRs) within the institute. This served as a complementary follow-up training session to that held on 06 February 2018 which focused on face-to-face PE.

Photo of digital footprint event Photo of digital footprint event July 2018The workshop was led by invited specialist Dr Jim Caryl, who examined how researchers can improve their digital presence and engage more efficiently with a wide audience online. The workshop sought to encourage attendees to think strategically about presenting a visible, coherent and credible digital identity and to consider the online life cycle of their research. It included a practical guide to how best to incorporate social media (such as twitter) into research and how to make changes to university staff webpages to improve our digital footprints. This included individualised feedback to participants on their current digital footprint which should allow them to take concrete steps to improve this.

‌‌Furthermore, following the workshop, members of the ECRF provided an overview of ECR relevant training within the university, and conducted a Q&A for ECRs to raise issues and suggestions for what future training opportunities they would like the forum investigate and seek funding for in 2018-2019 academic year.

The event was organised with support from the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund and IHW.


First published: 20 July 2018