2018 EMCR Masterclass

‘Pathways to Success’ Masterclass

Panellists: A/Prof Pritinder Kaur, Prof Claudia Wellbrock, Prof Phil Stephens and A/Prof Scott Byrne, with session chair Dr Brooke Farrugia

2018 EMCR Events

Theo Murphy Initiative Cutaneous Biology EMCR Program by Dr Xanthe Strudwick

This year, the AWTRS in partnership with the Australasian Society for Dermatology (ASDR) and the Molecular and Experimental Pathology Society of Australasia (MEPSA) were successful in securing funding from the Australian Academy of Science Theo Murphy Initiative to provide a dedicated EMCR program at the 2018 Cutaneous Biology meeting. Held on beautiful Stradbroke Island in QLD on Tuesday the 30th and Wednesday the 31st of October, the three part program attracted more than EMCRs, promising to provide tangible benefits to EMCRs to support their careers and ultimately further scientific discovery. In addition to supporting the activities at the meeting, the Theo Murphy Initiative also provided travel bursaries to support the participation of 7 EMCRs from across Australia (pictured below).


Travel bursary recipients from left to right: Dr Natasha Kolesnikoff, Dr Shelley Gorman, Dr Xanthe Strudwick, Dr Zlatko Kopecki, Dr Brooke Farrugia, Dr Anneliese Ashhurst, Ms Rachael Ireland.

This year, the AWTRS in partnership with the Australasian Society for Dermatology (ASDR) and the Molecular and Experimental Pathology Society of Australasia (MEPSA) were successful in securing funding from the Australian Academy of Science Theo Murphy Initiative to provide a dedicated EMCR program at the 2018 Cutaneous Biology meeting. Held on beautiful Stradbroke Island in QLD on Tuesday the 30th and Wednesday the 31st of October, the three part program attracted more than EMCRs, promising to provide tangible benefits to EMCRs to support their careers and ultimately further scientific discovery. In addition to supporting the activities at the meeting, the Theo Murphy Initiative also provided travel bursaries to support the participation of 7 EMCRs from across Australia (pictured below).

In the current research funding climate, early career researchers may feel stuck in the catch 22 of needing publications to secure funding, without yet have the funding to support the research needed to produce the publications. With this in mind, the first of the activities was a iTHINKWELL workshop run by High Kearns (pictured below) which gave tips and tricks on how to ‘Develop a Research Track Record on a Shoestring Budget’.

Hugh Kearns (@ithinkwellHugh) from iTHINKWELL

Over the two hour session, EMCRs were encouraged to think critically about the steps that they can take to get the data that they already have published, learning to work effectively with others in collaborations and as supervisors of students in order to publish and how to go about finding smaller pots of money to support research which leads to publications. Later that evening a networking event sponsored by the AWTRS, ASDR and MEPSA was held at the Stradbroke Island RSL, where the relaxed atmosphere allowed for vibrant discussions triggered from the afternoon’s workshop, solidifying existing connections and forming new networks.

The final event was a masterclass sponsored by Translational Research Institute Australia (TRI), in which Professor Claudia Wellbrock from the University of Würzburg, Germany, Professor Phil Stephens from Cardiff University, Associate Professor Pritinder Kaur from Curtin University, and Associate Professor Scott Byrne from the University of Sydney (pictured below) answered questions from the ECMRs on their experience finding ‘Pathways to Success’. The panellists reflected on the diverse avenues which successful researchers have taken over the course of the career, while giving insights into the characteristics which researcher leaders share, and those which EMCRs can seek to develop.

’Pathways to Success’ Masterclass panellists (left to right) A/Prof Pritinder Kaur, Prof Claudia Wellbrock, Prof Phil Stephens and A/Prof Scott Byrne, with session chair Dr Brooke Farrugia and inset tweet from Dr Natalie Stevens

Social media engagement was encouraged throughout the meeting, with a Twitter scavenger hunt being run for EMCRs, offering the winner one year’s membership to the society of their choice. Congratulations to the most prolific tweeter, Dr Natalie Stevens who won one year’s membership to the AWTRS, with special mentions to fellow tweeters Dr Xanthe Strudwick and Dr Natasha Kolesnikoff. You can catch up on what happened by checking out the following hashtags on Twitter #CB18_EMCR and #CutaneousBiology2018 or read more about the EMCRs experience of the program in the Cutaneous Biology meeting roundup written by awardees of the AWTRS conference travel awards, also in the current volume of the AWTRS newsletter. If you didn’t manage to be a part of the program in person, be sure to keep an eye out for the recording of the ‘Pathways to Success’ masterclass, which will soon be uploaded to the AWTRS website on the ECR page. The recording will also be hosted on the Australian Academy of Science’s webpage, to be a resource for ECRs and the aid in the development of the future leaders of the wider scientific community.

Finally, special thanks must go to the Australian Academy of Sciences staff Sandra Gardam, Laura Navarro and Jana Phan, as well as the EMCR organising committee Dr Brooke Farrugia (MCR and AWTRS Secretary), Dr Xanthe Strudwick (ECR and AWTRS committee ECR representative), Dr Zlatko Kopecki (MCR and AWTRS Vice President), Dr Leila Cuttle (MCR and AWTRS committee member), Dr Felix Marsh-Wakefield (ECR and MEPSA representative), Jacqueline Marshall (ECR-PhD student and MEPSA representative), Dr Edwige Roy (MCR and ASDR representative) and Zalitha Pieterse (ECR-PhD student and ASDR representative), for their role in providing such a beneficial program to the ECRs attending the Cutaneous Biology, and all those who may access the masterclass in the future.

2016 ECR Event

The 2016 ECR event was held at the Munich Brauhaus in Melbourne, during the first Joint Australasian Wound & Tissue Repair Society (AWTRS) and Molecular & Experimental Pathology Society of Australasia (MEPSA) at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from November 7th to 9th 2016.