A Helping Hand in Organising the Research Staff Conference

Posted on: 6 December 2023 by Dr Christof Baumgaertel (Number of words: 216; Read time: 1 min 4 sec) in Blog posts

The image shows a whiteboard with yellow post-its arranged in a smile with coloured post-it notes around it
The affirmation board put up in the dedicated Wellbeing area of the conference, where delegates attending the conference were encouraged to leave a positive message to the research community

Christof is a PDRA at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics. He is working on a research project in collaboration with Airbus to develop novel sensor technology for the next generation of airplanes.

For the better part of this year I was involved with the RSA to help organise 2023’s Research Staff Conference. It was most impressive to see how hard everybody is working in the background to make the conference happen, as well as the many events, activities and information provided by the RSA focused on researcher and career development. It is as much community driven as it is a driven community, where everybody is making a valued contribution to a common goal. A plurality of ideas and opinions in a constructive and inclusive environment leads to the synthesis of results that are worlds better than what could have been achieved alone.

Since the RSA is a network of researchers across the campus from all disciplines and faculties, it enables research staff to feel a connection across the university and allows different voices to be heard, representing the wider research community as a whole. With that, it forces one to think outside the boundaries of one’s own academic box and how events can be facilitated to cater to a cross-disciplinary audience.

All this is only made possible by dedication of the members while showing flexibility, time- and self-management to keep on top of activities and tasks, and a strong will to improve the experience and opportunities for the research community.

More information about the 2023 Research Staff Conference can be found by clicking here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/researcher/research-staff-conference/2023/