My experience joining the Research Steering Association

Posted on: 5 February 2024 by Alexandra Hunt (Number of words: 305; Read time: 1 minute, 31 seconds) in Blog posts

A picture of a white woman with shoulder length blonde hair wearing circular glasses and a green crocheted top, with a variegated spider plant in the background
Alexandra Hunt

Alexandra joined the department of Health Data Science as a research assistant specialising in Prediction modelling. Working on several projects across the week, she has also begun a part time PhD to gain her Doctorate in Health Data Science. Alexandra’s PhD project will develop and validate a clinical prediction model to predict the risk of emergency caesarean births in mothers giving birth for the first time.

In September 2022 I began my role as a research associate in the department of Health Data Science. I had completed my Masters at the University of Liverpool so I knew the department fairly well and joining as an RA felt quite natural. However, I didn’t know many fellow researchers across institutes and felt knowing a few more would help me both socially and with my work. The events organised by the RSA really helped with meeting and networking with people in similar situations. Over the course of the year I attended multiple “Lunch and Learns”, coffee mornings and even joined the Buddy Scheme.

Now that I am a year into my career I was drawn to the prospect of joining a committee to organise events and learn more about a the behind the scenes of all the news bulletins we receive and the spectacular events that are organised. The RSA Steering Committee felt like the perfect place!

I noticed that at the end of the weekly RSA news bulletin, the committee were looking to expand their team! I had a lovely chat with the team and they detailed how the committee was run and the upcoming events I could help organise. It all sounded wonderful!

Since joining the RSA I’ve met new colleagues and more importantly, made friends. I’ve developed my own skills in organising tasks and helping with the recent RSA conference. We meet monthly whereby we can share ideas to organise and advertise events that involve researchers across institutes. The committee feels like a real place to help make change within the university and the Liverpool community.

Within the next year I really looking forward to assisting in organising the wide variety of Lunch and Learns the committee organise. It’s also very enjoyable attending these events to meet everyone that comes along.