Opportunities for Early Career Researchers within the Division of Health Sciences
The Division of Health Sciences recognises the importance of personal and career development for
early career researchers (ECRs), and is committed to providing opportunities for development as
outlined here. Individual researchers share the responsibility for pro-actively engaging with their
own personal and career development.
The Division understands that not all researchers will want to develop a permanent career in
academia and will ensure ECR development recognises the full range of potential career options.
An ECR is a research assistant, research associate, research fellow, senior research fellow, academic
clinical fellow, clinical lecturer or equivalent.
Career Development Review
The annual review process should be the primary means of addressing the development needs of
ECRs. As part of the annual review each ECR and their line manager should discuss both the short
and long-term career aspirations of the ECR and agree a structured development programme, which
details what development activity the ECR will undertake over the next year. In line with the annual
review process this will be reviewed regularly throughout the year.
New starters should undergo an equivalent process as part of their induction. This will be used to
both set development goals and make sure that staff who are new to WMS are fully aware of the
development opportunities available at Warwick, and the commitment of WMS to ensuring that
ECRs fully engage and take responsibility for their career development.
All ECRs are expected to have an annual review, and quarterly reviews of their training and
development progress. For those wishing to pursue an academic career an extra document will be
made available covering the key development areas leading to a successful fellowship application.
Mentoring
In addition to their line manager, each ECR is entitled to a career development mentor or coach.
Every mentor involved will have been on a 1 day training course. Meeting frequency will vary, but
every 4-6weeks will be typical. Whilst mentoring is encouraged by senior management, all mentors
will be involved on a voluntary basis. If you wish to take part in the mentoring scheme, either to
become a mentor or to be mentored contact Sallyann Edwards (sallyann.edwards@warwick.ac.uk).
The mentor’s role is to support the ECR, and it is the ECR who sets the agenda for their meetings.
Hence, the role of the mentor will vary in each individual case but may include some of the following:
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To provide career development guidance
To open doors and provide new opportunities e.g. facilitate introductions to senior academics in
the field
To provide expertise in another area and/or assist in transition between research areas
To provide advice from someone who has just been through a process the person mentored is
aspiring to, e.g. a PhD, fellowship, funding/fellowship application, or upgrade/promotion
application
To provide assistance in developing a particular skill, or achieving a certain target (e.g. a journal
publication, successful funding application, building collaborations, or disseminating research
findings to maximise impact)
To help overcome barriers to career development
To help build confidence, broaden horizons or increase aspirations
Prepared by Sian Taylor-Phillips, Approved 27/2/2012
Time for Independent Career Development
To support independent career development the division will provide each ECR with half a day per
week of protected time to devote to their own career development (as long as this is possible within
the contract with the organisation funding the post). This ring-fenced time may be used for the
purposes of writing papers, preparing funding/fellowship applications, or receiving targeted training
and development.
A plan of how to use this time must be formulated as part of the annual review process and reviewed
at least every three months with the ECRs line manager, with action points from these reviews
documented.
Funding for Independent Career Development
A specific resource is available to fund early career researchers’ development through attendance at
conferences and training activities not covered by their core/project funding. See ‘Policy on requests
for divisional funding for training and development’ for further details.
Other funding available through Warwick University includes Staff Development activity
(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/funding/deptfund), Academic/Research staff development
fund (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/funding/asdf/), and Research Staff network funding
(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/researchers/networking/funding.
Funding opportunities
The Division of Health Sciences strongly supports and encourages ECRs to apply for funding, and in
particular, for fellowships.
A monthly bulletin of funding opportunities is sent from research support services (if you do not
receive this please contact Maria Ovens – m.j.ovens@warwick.ac.uk ). A personalised funding alert
can be set up using researchprofessional.com (assistance with this can be provided by Samantha
Johnson, Academic librarian – Samantha.A.Johnson@warwick.ac.uk ). Research Support Services can
also provide tailored support to identify funding opportunities, and planning and drafting of funding
applications, (contact John Burden – J.P.Burden@warwick.ac.uk ). The Warwick Hub of the West
Midlands Research Design Service is also based here and can offer methodological expertise and
advice on all aspects of research design for fellowship applications and applications to other peer
reviewed funding streams (contact rds@warwick.ac.uk ). A formal system of internal peer review of
funding applications is also in place to increase the quality and likelihood of success of applications.
Prepared by Sian Taylor-Phillips, Approved 27/2/2012