ECR workshop

The future of ageing research: building confidence in interdisciplinary collaboration

Monday 3rd July 2023 | Manchester

ART ECR event

Participant feedback “It was great to meet other people working in this area and hear about what other research is going on.”

ART ECR event 2

Participant feedback “This session really helped me to recognise what I want from research collaboration and what are the most important steps I need to take to make it a success.”

On Monday 3^rd July 2023, the ART of Healthy Ageing Network hosted a 1-day workshop for Early Career Researchers (ECR) at Manchester Metropolitan University.

This workshop was devised in direct response to surveys of our ECR community about their unmet training and development needs and focused on building confidence and capability in interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Network Management group worked closely with The Collective to develop an interactive workshop that provided attendees with opportunities to explore strategies for building successful interdisciplinary collaborations and to develop approaches to working with people from different disciplines and career stages.

ECR were invited to apply for free places to attend the workshop. As part of this application process, ECR were asked to outline what they hoped to gain from attending the workshop and to summarise how their work aligns with the ART of Healthy Ageing Network objectives and contributes to the translational ageing research agenda.

Over 25 ECR from a range of academic disciplines and institutions, across the UK, attended the workshop. Attendees were encouraged to transcend the boundaries of their respective fields and engage in cross-disciplinary interactions and by doing so contributed to the creation of a positive, reflective and collaborative environment.

As this blog from a participant demonstrates, feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive with many ECR expressing their gratitude for the practical skills and insights gained.

By equipping attendees with essential skills in interdisciplinary collaboration and facilitating meaningful networking, the workshop contributed to the ART of Healthy Ageing Network’s objective of growing a thriving community of ECR primed to make significant contributions to translational ageing research. We look forward to continuing our work with ECR and will be providing further networking opportunities that span career stages as well as disciplines in the future.