Off the Beaten PI Track

Presentation delivered at the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2022 annual conference, Glasgow (June 2022).

Abstract:

The realisation of open science requires diversification of the academic workforce, not only in the transitional period, but also for the maintenance of new infrastructure and behaviours. This brings a welcome opportunity to expand the breadth of roles in academia, with a growth in the range of career paths which can be determined to be “successful” according to an individual's own criteria. Importantly, this will increase the opportunities for skills and ambition to be cultivated in directions which fall outside of the traditional PI track. In this talk, I will describe my own rewarding journey into Research Support, how this has reinvigorated my passion for research, my desire to develop others, and enumerate opportunities for growth and development. The dark side of this move, however, is a deep recognition of how far we have to go, and how much further/quicker/more effectively we could progress with greater resources. This talk is a call to arms: Join me in applying pressure to your intuitions to support your ambition to contribute to research in a way that maximises your skill, authority, and expertise, and puts you to best use in realising their vision for an open academic culture.