2023 Early Career Researcher event
07/11/2023
In November 2023, we hosted our Early Career Researcher event at the Building Centre, Central London. Many thanks to those who attended, the engagement throughout the day was fantastic and it was a real pleasure to meet people in-person.
The day was full of interactive sessions, kicking off with a mock Research Grants Committee meeting. To give an insight into how research proposals are assessed, and how funding decisions are made, we heard from the Chair of our Research Grants Committee, Professor Carmel Hughes on the Trust’s approach to research funding.
In our 5-minute Fellowships session, we were joined by Grace, Kieran, and Barbara each of whom presented on their PhD projects before answering questions from the audience.
In our final session, we heard from Chris, Manik, and Mahera on the keys to making multi-disciplinary research and collaborations a success.
If you weren’t able to join us, you can view the recorded sessions and take a look at the poster presentations down below. You can also see the photos from the event here.
Agenda
Our approach to research funding
Carmel Hughes is Professor of Primary Care at the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast, and a Trustee and Chair of the Dunhill Medical Trust’s Research Grants committee. Writing a grant can be daunting, especially if you’re not sure how grant committees work and what committee members are looking for in research applications. Carmel explains the steps and measures a committee goes through when deciding whether or not to fund a grant proposal. She also describes the numerous types of projects and Fellowships the DMT offers to early career researchers.
5-minute Fellowships: Dr Grace Pearson – Innovating undergraduate geriatric medicine training
Dr Grace Pearson is the recipient of a Dunhill Medical Trust-funded PhD fellowship, and her work focuses on transforming undergraduate geriatrics education. She is a speciality doctor in geriatrics and a clinical lecturer in Ageing Education at Bristol Medical School and has held multiple national positions, including as a Junior representative on the British Geriatrics Society council. Hear Grace talk about what her fellowship has enabled her to achieve.
5-minute Fellowships: Kieran Bowden – Targeting neutrophil cell death as a treatment for multimorbidity
Kieran Bowden is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust-Healthy Lifespan Institute Doctoral Training Programme. Kieran studied biomedical sciences at the University of Hull as an undergraduate before going on to complete a master’s in molecular medicine at the University of Sheffield, and his work focuses on targeting neutrophil cell death for treating multimorbidity.
5-minute Fellowships: Barbara Balocating Dunn – Developing Inclusive Design for Dementia Standards
Barbara Balocating Dunn is a PhD student at Loughborough University funded under the Inclusive Design for Dementia (ID4D) Dunhill Medical Trust PhD Studentships. Barbara is a qualified architect with a background in Architecture and Human Factors for Inclusive Design, and her work focuses on enabling future home adaptations for people living with dementia.
Making multi-disciplinary research and collaborations a success
Healthy ageing research is inherently multi-disciplinary, and knowing how best to work well with others can make a big difference during projects. In these talks, we hear first-hand experiences on how to find and secure collaborators, as well as how to work well with collaborators outside of academia. Hear from Dr Chris Hardy, who held a personal Fellowship jointly funded by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and the Dunhill Medical Trust, and from Dr Manik Gopinath and Dr Mahera Ruby, who run a Dunhill Medical Trust-funded project working with the Bangla Housing Association and the Housing Learning and Improvement Network to develop living environments for Bangladeshi elders.