How to plan professional career - tips for young scientists

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

The course consists in five workshops with strong emphasis on the acquisition of practical skills, which will help in the development of scientific career. On the first meeting the participants will learn how to specify own research interests and plan the career. The aim of subsequent meetings is development of various skills useful for the fulfilment of the career plan. The participant will learn where to look for traineeship and PhD opportunities, where to look for funding for their research projects, how to prepare scientific CV and research projects. A separate meeting will be dedicated to the scientific communication – presentation of their results in a form of posters, multimedia presentations or publications. Beside acquisition of hard skills, some soft skills, such as communication, critical observation and teamwork will be developed. The course will imply tutoring techniques. The participants will be evaluated on the basis of short, practical home works.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

Week 1: Career planning:• Finding research interests• Stages of scientific career in Europe• Other career opportunities• Personal Education/Career PlanWeek 2: Looking for new opportunities.• Where to look for summer schools, traineeship and PhD offers? • How to apply?• Tips for scientific CVWeek 3:Scientific communication.• Introduction to communication• Personalities and roles in communication• Scientific discussion• New tools for scientific communication: Facebook, Twitter, ResearchGate, Academia Week 4: Presenting data: posters, presentations, publications• Tips and tricks for preparation of posters and presentation.• Scientific publications: types, structure, impact factor, altmetrics • Tips for writing popular scientific and scientific articlesWeek 5: Writing scientific projects. • Finding project funding • General tips for project writing

Reading list

1. Fischoff B., 2013. “The sciences of science communication”. PNAS 110: 14033-14039. 2. Mathews J.R. and Mathews R.W., 2008. “Successful Scientific Writing. A step-by-step guide for biological and medical science sciences”. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2008. 3. McGee P., 2009. “How to write a CV that works”. Published by How To Content. Oxford 2009.4. “ERC Working Program 2017”. European Research Council established by the European Research Commission.