OPDA Postdoc Programme 2019-2020

Once you have booked a provisional place on this course, you will need to email the organiser Dr Rahuman Sheriff, sheriff AT ebi.ac.uk with your CV and cover-letter explaining why you would like to participate, with “MOL-workshop” in the subject line by 18th September 2019.

Computer models are increasingly used by researchers as well as pharmaceutical industry to investigate molecular mechanisms disease initiation, progression and therapy. Systems modelling of biochemical pathways deregulated in disease condition offers mechanistic insights into the pathology; helps to elucidate mechanisms behind dug action and predict dose required for treatment and thereby greatly facilitates fundamental research and drug discovery. Such modelling requires background in both molecular biology and mathematics.

This workshop will train postdocs from life science and mathematics to communicate and work together to learn to build and analyse computational models using user-friendly open source software. Participant will explore selected computational models from a recent publication, freely available in BioModels repository (www.ebi.ac.uk/biomodels/).

Speakers:

Lourdes Cucurull-Sanchez PhD Director, Quantitative Clinical Pharmacology GSK Medicines Research Centre, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2NY, UK

Prof. Jasmin Fisher PhD, FRSB Professor of Computational Biology UCL Cancer Institute Faculty of Medical Sciences, Paul O’Gorman Building 72 Huntley Street, London WC1E 6DD

Alfonso Martinez Arias PhD Professor of Developmental Mechanick Department of Genetics University of Cambridge Cambridge CB2 3EH

Tutors:

Rahuman Sheriff PhD, Thawfeek Varusai PhD and Krishna Tiwari EMBL-EBI, Cambridge, UK

Getting things right is critical when working with human participants and/or personal data. Non-ethical research may put the participants at risk or damage the validity of your findings. Moreover, appropriate ethical reflection is a feature of high quality research and goes beyond an approval letter from a research ethics committee. Taking an ethics-by-numbers approach to ethical approval, without due reflection of the specifics concerns involved may lead you to unnecessarily restrict your research. It may also mean you’re less prepared to handle ongoing or unexpected ethical considerations e.g. decision-making in fieldwork or how best to interpret and disseminate data.

On this course, you will learn the principles underpinning ethical research and how to manage issues like seeking informed consent, recruiting vulnerable people, processing personal data, balancing participants’ interests with academic freedom and societal obligations, re-using personal data, respecting participant autonomy and reacting to unexpected events. Using case studies and group discussion, this course will explore best practice for working with human participants and personal data and provide opportunities for you to share your experiences and learn from others.

In this session, you will learn about:

• The State Pension system in the UK
• Private Pensions in the UK
• The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)

The session will be delivered by Head of Pensions at the University of Cambridge, and there will be ample opportunity for asking questions.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

A must-attend morning with information tailored to postdocs in Cambridge, whether University-based or employed by Colleges or Research Institutions.

At this event, you will be given information about: o Your contract o Professional development & the careers service o Accommodation (including how to apply for accommodation at the new North West Cambridge development) o The postdoc community at Cambridge

and have ample opportunity to meet other postdocs and network.

The next event on ‘Postdocs’ Work and Family Life Seminar Series’ will be a panel session about how academics improve their wellbeing and productivity with hobbies and interests.

A recent report indicated that; 'In large-scale surveys, UK higher education staff have reported worse wellbeing than staff in other types of employment (including education, and health and social work) in the areas of work demands, change management, the support provided by managers and clarity about one's role.'*

Elena Pavlenko and Amber Ruigrok will be sharing their own mental health challenges as academics and their strategies for coping.

Please register your interest in this well-being event and feel free to bring your lunch. Coffee/tea will be available.

• Guthrie, Susan, Catherine A. Lichten, Janna Van Belle, Sarah Ball, Anna Knack, and Joanna Hofman, Understanding mental health in the research environment: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2022.html.

If you have recently started peer reviewing, or are ready to get involved, the OSC invites you to this unmissable session, where you will pick up tips and best practices from PLOS, publishers of the world's largest multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal.

A must-attend morning with information tailored to postdocs in Cambridge, whether University-based or employed by Colleges or Research Institutions.

At this event, you will be given information about: o Your contract o Professional development & the careers service o Accommodation (including how to apply for accommodation at the new North West Cambridge development) o The postdoc community at Cambridge

and have ample opportunity to meet other postdocs and network.

In this session, you will learn about:

• The State Pension system in the UK
• Private Pensions in the UK
• The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)

The session will be delivered by Head of Pensions at the University of Cambridge, and there will be ample opportunity for asking questions.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

People love stories. They entertain, they help us to remember. This short interactive session is aimed at researchers looking to improve the effectiveness of their communication. It will introduce the importance of working out who your audience is and what they want to know. It will also explore how storytelling is as relevant to research communication as it is to fairy tales. We all have to communicate our research and ideas, why not do it through stories?

The session will be delivered by the Academic Director for STEM, Institute of Continuing Education.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Join the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs [OPdA] at their flagship Postdoc Centre @ Eddington for lunch with the Head of OPdA, Karina Prasad, and Assistant Head, Liz Simmonds. Over lunch, Karina and Liz will give a brief overview of the OPdA and how it can support you in your role. This will include the OPdA’s current initiatives, work on the Concordat, and other areas with a connection to HR and support for postdocs. There will also be an opportunity to have your questions answered.

Have you ever faced any issues related to authorship within your research group or making a submission to a journal?

• Who gets to be an author?
• How do you start a conversation on authorship with your research team?
• What approaches can be used to resolve an authorship problem?
• How are mistakes handled in a published paper?
• In what circumstances will a paper be retracted from a journal?

Using case studies and group discussion, this course will explore best practice from how authorship of a paper is decided to managing the challenges that can arise when working with publishers or editors. Discussions will include ‘grey areas’, common issues and pitfalls, and you will be given the opportunity to share your experiences and perspectives.

Postdocs of the University of Cambridge are invited to join the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs for a lunchtime networking event!

You will have the opportunity to hear about the spaces and resources available while enjoying lunch with OPdA staff and fellow postdocs.

Hope to see you all there!

P.S: OPdA will be taking photos at today’s event to help promote this and other similar events. If you would prefer not to be photographed, please speak to one of OPdA members.

In December 2019, the University of Cambridge officially signed the new Researcher Development Concordat. The ‘Concordat’ sets out a series of responsibilities and working practices designed to create a healthy and supportive culture for research, and to increase the appeal and sustainability of research careers in the UK.

The new Concordat is structured in to three principles: Environment & culture, employment and professional & career development. Within each principle there are obligations for institutions, managers of researchers and researchers themselves, and, for the first time, funders of research.

At this open meeting, Liz Simmonds, chair of the University’s Concordat Working Group, will present further detail about the Concordat and its likely benefits and implications, and will update on progress of the working group towards an institutional implementation plan. This will be followed by a Q&A session.

The Concordat will have an impact across the whole institution, and so this session will be useful for academic staff, research staff, and professional services staff who support postdocs.

Learn how to sell your research to the media. You will pick up some tips on best media practice and how to spark interest in your specialism.

Bring along your favorite/local dish to share (max. 2 portions) and enjoy all kinds of food from all around the world!

If you have recently started peer reviewing, or are ready to get involved, the OSC invites you to this unmissable session, where you will pick up tips and best practices from PLOS, publishers of the world's largest multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal.

A must-attend morning with information tailored to postdocs in Cambridge, whether University-based or employed by Colleges or Research Institutions.

At this event, you will be given information about: o Your contract o Professional development & the careers service o Accommodation (including how to apply for accommodation at the new North West Cambridge development) o The postdoc community at Cambridge

and have ample opportunity to meet other postdocs and network.

Following the UK government’s announcement of a ‘new’ visa route, known as the Global Talent Visa, Graeme Ross, the University’s Head of Immigration for staff members, will conduct a presentation on what this means for postdocs and how to apply for this visa. There will also be a short presentation on other relevant visa routes, such as dependant visas and Indefinite Leave to Remain/Settlement, and an opportunity to ask questions about other immigration matters.

Do you know what to look out for when choosing an Open Access publisher or a data repository?

It's important to get these decisions right to be at the forefront of the trend towards Open Research, ensuring that you build a strong profile and embrace the changes that are expected from researchers.

Practicing Open Research will help you to:

• Be cited more often
• Secure grants
• Spark collaborations
• Make your findings more reproducible