Support for Early Career Researchers

Early Career Researchers are an integral part of the dementia research community, both in Scotland and across the world. The SDRC are committed to supporting and strengthening the breadth and depth of all research. And a key element of this to give support for Early Career Researchers.

For this reason, we have created a range of services specifically to support Early Career Researchers. This includes programmes which are an opportunity to learn more about different disciplines of dementia research. We also have resources for more general career advice. Please see below what resources are currently available, along with what we plan to roll out in the near future. We will be adding more resources as we can arrange them. So make sure you are an SDRC member to be the first to know when these launch. Also, follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates.

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Mentorship Programme

The SDRC Executive have established a mentorship programme, which is available to all of our members who are Early Career Researchers.

We have already had one round of very successful Mentoring partnerships in 2020. The programme is currently paused, but we will launch another round in 2021.

However, you can register your interest for now

Find out more

Webinars

The SDRC have launched a webinar series focussed on ECRs. These webinars will take place on the first Wednesday of every month.

We have a diverse range of talks lined up on a variety of topics. From research insights to practical support for your own research career, you are sure to learn something new!

Keep checking our events page to sign up for future events. Also, visit the Webinar page to watch back previous events.

See what's on

Ambassador Programme

We know how difficult the past year has been for ECRs. In no small part due to a lack of networking and relationship building opportunities.

Event travel may not be happening now, but we are hopeful events can go ahead once again soon. And the SDRC want to support ECRs to access and attend these meetings. This includes preventing you from missing these important opportunities due to cost. This programme will open as soon possible. In the meantime, please register your interest.

Funding and Career Opportunities

We keep on the look out for studentships, fellowships and any other opportunities that may help you take the next steps in your research career.

This section is also where we will post any future funding opportunities that we are aware of, or create ourselves, so stay tuned

Find out more

Read the latest Early Career Researcher Activity

Early Career Researchers: Fatene Abakar Ismail

In today's COVID Impact blog, Fatene Abakar Ismail from the University of Glasgow is sharing her experiences of lockdown so far, how the pandemic has affected research and balancing working with being a mum. Read more blogs in the series here. My name is Fatene Abakar...

Early Career Researchers: Martha Pollard

We hope you are enjoying our blog series which is celebrating our next generation of researchers, featuring those that were in the SDRC Annual Report 2019/20. Our final blog is by Martha Pollard, from the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Resource Centre. Read about...

Early Career Researchers: Shaun Stone

We start off the fourth week of the SDRC's blog series on Early Career Researchers from Shaun Stone from the University of Aberdeen. Shaun's research relates to the SDRC's Diagnosis theme, which you can find out more about here. Shaun Stone is a final year PhD ERC...

COVID Impact on ECRs: Michael Smith

In the coming days, the SDRC are publishing a series of blogs featuring Early Career Researchers who are sharing how COVID has impacted their research and career prospects. Today's blog is by Michael Smith, a PhD student from UWS. A Deep roots are not reached by the...

COVID Impact on ECRs: Rose Vincent

Read today's COVID Impact blog from Rose Vincent, who has recently started a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. This part of a series of many blogs from students and ECRs on how COVID has affected their research and also featuring many practical advice for those...

Early Career Researchers: Stina Saunders

Throughout August, the SDRC are publishing a series of blogs from PhD Students/ Early Career Researchers in dementia and brain health. For the first week, we are featuring those that were in the SDRC Impact Report 2019. Read about Stina Saunders' research as a PhD...

Early Career Researchers: Juan Varela

This week, the SDRC are publishing a series of blogs to PhD Students/ Early Career Researchers that were featured in the SDRC Annual Report 2019/20. Today's blog is from Juan Varela from the University of St Andrews My academic background is a mixture of physics,...

COVID Impact on ECRs: Edel Roddy

The SDRC are publishing a series of blogs featuring Early Career Researchers who are sharing how COVID has impacted their research and career prospects. The first blogs in this series also featured in our COVID Research Impact Report which we published in April. Read...

COVID Impact on ECRs: Tuuli Hietamies

The SDRC are continuting our series of blogs featuring Early Career Researchers who are sharing how COVID has impacted their research and career prospects. Today's blog is from Tuuli Hietamies, thank you Tuuli for your contribution! Read the rest of the blog...

Guest Blog: Jennifer Waymont

Today's blog is from Jenny Waymont, who recently completed her PhD and is now working with Brain Health Scotland. You may recognise Jenny from previous blogs, and also featured as an ECR in the SDRC Annual Report 2020. Jenny tells us about her where her career is...

How do I join the SDRC?

Resources to support Early Career Researchers are open only to SDRC Members. If you are not already a member, you can sign up for free today

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The SDRC is proud to be supported by Alzheimer Scotland