Dear ECR community,
I hope you had a good and smooth start into the new semester and are back in the swing of things.
Between busy teaching timetables, assessment prep work and staff meetings, research and knowledge exchange activities for Early Career Researchers continue to flourish. Read on to find out more about our inspiring, new Keep Momentum event and podcast series, as well as further outlines opportunities for networking, motivation and future planning.
Events
- Newly launched for the academic year of 2025-26
The Early Career Network is excited to introduce a year-long interdisciplinary workshop series designed to support Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in navigating the evolving academic landscape.
Open to all disciplines, this series offers a welcoming, collaborative space to explore key challenges and opportunities in academic career development.
Organised and hosted by ECRs in collaborations between different schools, each session features insights from senior academics, fostering cross-school dialogue and peer support.
First Workshop: How to cope with rejection
Date: Wednesday 5 November 2025
Time: 12:30–1:20 PM
Location: Cockcroft 327
Hosted by: School of Applied Sciences
Guest Speaker: Professor Susan Sandeman
Join us for an honest conversation about rejection and feedback in academia – how to cope, learn, and grow from it.
🎧 Can’t attend? Catch up on our podcast!
Keep Momentum, our companion podcast, will feature highlights and extended conversations. The first episode drops after 5 November, featuring Sarah Purnell on her recent bidding success and the process that led to it.
- Inaugural lectures of Professor Malcolm Johnston, Professor Michael Jopling, and Professor Yan Wang coming up this academic term
Showcasing the work of our newest professors, inaugural lectures are always of great insight and interest. With topics such as circular economy, digitalisation in schools and radiology in medical education, an exciting list of inaugural lectures await us.
To book your place please follow the links below:
Professor Malcolm Johnston (6.11.25) https://delegate.brighton.ac.uk/MalcolmJohnston
Professor Michael Jopling (20.11.25) https://delegate.brighton.ac.uk/MichaelJopling
Professor Yan Wang (4.12.25) https://delegate.brighton.ac.uk/YanWang
Training
- Save the date: Next year’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Week will take place from 13-16 April 2026.
The fourth University-wide Research and Knowledge Exchange Week will be packed with activities designed to support and develop our researchers and their activity and includes the Festival of Postgraduate Research once more.
The events will bring together research colleagues, including fixed-term researchers and postgraduate research students, at all stages of their research and knowledge exchange career and from all disciplines.
Development
- Opportunity for ECRs in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences to join the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network
The Early Career Researcher Network (ECRN) is an inclusive, researcher-led membership body accessible to all UK-based early career researchers (ECRs) working in the humanities and social sciences – regardless of their funding source or background.
With a newly launched network in the South East, ECRs based at University of Brighton are now able to join the network via the following link to sign up on the relevant website.
- R&KE Initiatives: Deadlines approaching
Please be reminded that the deadlines for various internal initiatives for funding of R&KE activities are coming up in the next couple of weeks. Have a closer look on what is available here.
Please be in touch if you have any questions or comments. I wish you a good term and hope to see you at one of our events in the Keep Momentum Series.
All the best,
Barbara
