One year into my Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions individual fellowship

Introduction

This is the second instalment of my blog as a Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) research fellow. As stated in the first instalment the purpose of the blog is to provide information on my personal experiences of the scheme, which may be of use to researchers considering the same. I have been working on my research project ‘Target-N2O’ at the University of Melbourne for one year now, so thought it was a good time for an update. I have one more year remaining in the outgoing phase and another year when I return to Bangor University.

Reflecting on the previous year

Doesn’t time move quickly! I can’t quite believe I have been working on my project for a whole year. In the first blog I had detailed how I was overcoming some personal issues and that things were starting to look up. I am pleased to say that this is still the case and things have been going well for me. Having said that, even without dealing with these issues I still think it would have taken me a fairly long time to settle/establish myself in a new place of work. I think working away for one year somewhere really wouldn’t be enough time (unless there is a need for the project to be very short). If you are considering applying for the scheme, then I would recommend applying for the most time you can…its longer job security for one, but it also allows you that time to build up good working relationships and networks with new colleagues. The maximum amount of time you can spend in the outgoing phase for the Global Fellowship is two years, and one year in the return phase, so I would advise making the most of it if you can. I now feel like I am becoming more of a familiar face in the faculty and have engaged in some of the women in science and early career networking events organised within the department, which is a great way to meet new people.

Training through research

Being able to expand my research skills was one of the features that attracted me to the scheme, so I thought it would be useful to reflect on how this has gone so far. One thing that has occurred to me is that the only people that can be officially written in to the grant proposal are the researcher and the two supervisors (one for the outgoing phase and one for the return phase). While you can list other people within the body of the proposal e.g. other researchers who will collaborate and help you achieve your training objectives, this is not officially recorded as someone’s time on the project. I think this is just something to be aware of and you need to be sure that your supervisors are well connected and have a plan for colleagues and other researchers who are willing to spend time training you. This hasn’t been a problem for me, but I think it could potentially be a stumbling block for some projects. Luckily I have had a network of researchers who have been happy to collaborate. There have been a couple of occasions where the original researchers I had written down as being able to help have not ended up being the people that actually helped, however, I have managed to find alternatives in this scenario. In my proposal I included a schematic of a training and collaboration network, which listed the researchers, alongside their expertise, who would be happy to help in the areas I was trying to develop. Within this I tried to have overlap in the people and their skills between both institutions – in this respect it has acted as a fall back scenario, so if I can’t find the help I need in one place I can return to the researchers in the other place and ask them if they know anyone working in that area that could help. For example, I had initially found a post-doc in the University of Melbourne who had started to help me learn about soil molecular ecology, however, her contract ended before I began working on this aspect. Therefore, I went back to a colleague (and one of my PhD supervisors) in Bangor University, as he has very strong links with the University of Western Australia, where I knew there were also researchers with strong expertise in this area. Through this network it was possible to ensure the training objectives were still met by organising another short research visit to this University.

Expectation vs. reality

Another thing I thought I would comment on is the experimental aspect of the project and how this has been going. It is all very well writing a proposal – but what do you do when results don’t go to plan? As a scientist you can formulate good hypotheses and have an expectation of what will happen with your studies, but often the results do not turn out like you expect. This has happened with a few of my initial studies and I think it is an important part of managing any project. How do you adapt and ensure you are still meeting the goals and deliverables set out in the proposal when things don’t go as planned? For me this has meant planning additional follow up studies and preliminary studies to help explain some of the results and make sure future studies go to plan. In retrospect I don’t think I included or thought about this in enough detail in my proposal. It is recommended that you write a risk management plan, which I did complete, but did not cover back up plans if results didn’t go as expected. So I think that could be another good tip to include in a proposal i.e. think what would happen if you got the opposite result that you planned and how would you mitigate that risk or what would you do under that scenario. It has implications both for the deliverables in your project and the potential costs of your research. 

Picture of my latest experiment looking at greenhouse gas emissions and the soil molecular ecology of intact dairy pasture soil cores. Conducted in the Burnley Campus glasshouse facility, University of Melbourne.

Mobility and networking

One thing that I can really rate highly about this fellowship is the opportunities it creates in terms of mobility and networking. I can already see the benefits after being here for one year in terms of potential for future collaborations and generally just getting your name out there beyond that of your current research environment. As well as getting me to the University of Melbourne, I have also spent time on a research visit at Queensland University of Technology. The project has also enabled me to attend and present my research at the 7th Greenhouse Gas and Animal Agriculture conference, which was held in Foz Do Iguacu, Brazil. There are also plenty more mobility and networking opportunities planned in my second year including the planned research visit to the University of Western Australia early next year. In addition, I hope to visit some research institutes in New Zealand and share some of my work to date, there are several researchers who work within my field there so that will be an excellent opportunity to promote the work. It is also looking likely that I may visit the University of Tasmania for another one of the training aspects of the fellowship.

The beautiful Foz do Iguaçu waterfalls which I was lucky enough to visit after the 7th Greenhouse Gas and Animal Agriculture conference, held in Brazil.

Future plans

So I have a very busy couple of years planned ahead of me in terms of research and networking and I hope that some of the outcomes of the research will be of benefit to society. I’m already starting to think about my next steps in my career – what that might involve and the preparation I may need to do to get me there. Another thing the scheme encourages is for you to have an action plan for your career, and I definitely think it is always worth thinking early on in your current position where you would like to be in the next stage. I will post another blog in a few months’ time – there may be more tips that I can think of along the way that may help other researchers who want to apply for the scheme.

Beginning my Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions individual fellowship: An honest account

Introduction

My name is Karina Marsden and this blog will detail the journey of my Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) individual global fellowship. It is intended for anyone who might be interested in applying for one in the future or are curious about what it is like if you successfully achieve one. I intend to update on my progress as I go along, this first blog is written roughly 4 months into the fellowship and provides a personal account of my journey so far.

Deciding to apply for an MSCA fellowship

It was during my first post-doctoral position that, naturally, I began thinking about what would come next and how I could develop my future academic career. I thought about ways I could improve my future career prospects – broadening my research skill set, gaining international experience and evidence of securing grant money seemed like aspects I needed to improve upon, so I started looking at fellowship opportunities. The MSCA grants seemed to fit the bill perfectly, a prestigious fellowship allowing international mobility and knowledge exchange. So I attended a MSCA grant writing workshop – I would highly recommend attending such a course if you can. Here I picked up many hints and tips on how to write a successful proposal. I also found out I could apply in the current year, and if successful, delay the project start (so that I could still finish my current post-doc position). This also meant that if I was unsuccessful in the first round I could potentially resubmit in the following year whilst still being in a job. On reflection, thinking about your next career move early on in your current position is important in securing that next step.

The application process

Deciding to apply in the current year didn’t give me particularly long to write the proposal – just over two months. In hindsight, committing to submit that year with a tight deadline probably helped motivate me to get the proposal written. First was to decide where in the world I would like to spend the outgoing phase. I had visited Melbourne for a conference a few years back and really liked the place. Luckily there was also highly reputable researchers working in a similar field as mine that I could approach to ask for supervision and training during the outgoing phase. So I chose to apply from Bangor University in North Wales, with The University of Melbourne as the host for the outgoing phase. A great thing about these grants is that you bring your own salary and research money, making collaboration more appealing to any potential hosts. I spoke about my ideas with colleagues during the writing process and tried to get as much feedback as possible. It took a lot of personal time, writing in evenings and weekends, but I managed to get the submission in on time.

Winning the grant

I remember the day well where I received the news that the research project had been successfully funded. It was my first application so I was in shock and disbelief that it was actually successful and I was relieved all that hard work had paid off! Writing one of these proposals is a big time investment, and I was worried that if I was unsuccessful all that time would have gone to waste. However, I was told even if unsuccessful you can always reuse a proposal either for a different fellowship or as a resubmission. So don’t view it as a waste of time and be persistent, even if it takes a few attempts.   

After notification of receiving the grant, the next steps were sorting out visas for myself and my husband and ensuring the contracts were sorted between the two institutions I would be working between. So there was a bit of administration type work to do to ensure everything was in place for the start date. As I had a fair bit of time to plan for the move I slowly sold off most of my possessions and managed to fit my life into a couple of suitcases.

Disaster strikes

About two weeks before my departure date I suffered from a complete mental breakdown and even had to go to hospital. Unfortunately I was not well enough to begin my project on time. This was devastating for me and the last thing I anticipated writing about in this blog would be overcoming a mental health issue. But these things are not to be ashamed of and more common than people think. I did not know how long it would take to recover, but in a month I went from not being able to write properly with a pen to being adamant that I was well enough to leave.  

Settling in

It has taken me a fairly long time to settle in. In reality I think my recovery has been a longer process than I would have at first liked to admit. I was trying to manage bouts of anxiety and depression (which I had never experienced before) alongside moving to a completely new place and having to adapt to a new work environment. I had worked in the same institution for my entire academic career so it was a big change for me. My supervisors have been great and helped me realise it is normal to feel a drop in productivity when moving to a new place. I am also grateful to my husband who has been very supportive throughout the whole process. I now feel like I have turned a corner with my issues and that things are looking up. I have some data coming in and my first big field trial underway and a lovely international student has come to help out with some of the experiments as part of a CLIFFGrad scholarship. I’ve really enjoyed living in the city of Melbourne and now I am currently on a research visit in Brisbane at Queensland University of Technology.

Me conducting field research in a dairy pasture in Australia

It is great to get to see different parts of Australia and work with different research groups. If you plan on writing a proposal putting in a research visit to another research institute or industry partner is recommended. It is a great way of increasing your network and to potentially see more of the country you are visiting at the same time.

What’s next

Next I will be continuing working on the project from Australia until December 2020 before I return to Bangor University in the UK for the return year. It will be interesting to see how much I will learn and what will lead on from this position, so follow my blog to hear more about my fellowship in later posts.