ACO Attends European Conference on Researcher Mobility

ACO Attends European Conference on Researcher Mobility

by Alanna O’Malley, Academic Careers Observatory

The Academic Careers Observatory (ACO) was represented at the Researcher Careers and Mobility Conference in Dublin in May by the Academic Assistant for ACO, Alanna O’Malley.

O’Malley was one of 15 winners of a travel bursary competition to attend the conference. The application for the bursary competition comprised of a 3 minute video which discussed how the research agenda of ACO was relevant to the aims of the conference.

Organised as part of the Irish Presidency of the European Union, the conference aimed to examine how the development of the European Research Area (ERA) is progressing, and what challenges remain for researchers in Europe. Researchers at various stages of their careers were invited to give their personal experiences of their careers to date, planning, mobility, Marie Curie Fellowships, and more.

ACO was represented at the workshop on mobility, which discussed the concept of ‘virtual mobility’ and moving between employment sectors. There was also further broad discussion at the plenary session of the research agenda of ACO, determining the current challenges to early-career researchers in academia. The issues discussed included how best researchers can utilise mobility and international experience to advance their careers, what are the requirements for progression in different European university systems, and how researchers can learn to use their academic experience in other fields beyond academia.

The conference provided the opportunity to gauge progress in achieving the objectives of the ERA and how to make further advances through the interaction of researchers and policymakers. Through interactive workshops and discussion fora, delegates developed practical initiatives to help Europe overcome the well-known barriers to mobility (between countries and/or employment sectors) and to improve the career prospects for researchers. All of the discussion was directly relevant to the research agenda of ACO, and the Observatory was also able to offer insights into the issues considering its long-standing work on these questions.

See how Alanna got selected to participate in the conference:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-5i4bkwRSS1bllnS242NVBmNkk/edit?usp=drive_web