A returners’ guide to research Acknowledgements We are grateful to David Holmes (the science writer) and to the members of Wellcome Trust staff who helped to produce this brochure: Shewly Choudhury, Sharon James, Louisa Tribe and Malcolm Chivers. 2 | A returners guide A returners’ guide Foreword Supporting researchers throughout their careers is at the heart of our funding philosophy. We believe that breakthroughs emerge when the most talented researchers are given the resources and freedom they need to pursue their goals, and we know that success demands diversity – of people, ideas and approaches. However, different people choose different career paths, so we strive to provide flexibility in the range of research career opportunities we offer. An important example of this is our Research Career Re-entry Fellowships – see wellcome.ac.uk/cref – which offer postdoctoral scientists the chance to re-establish their careers after a substantial break. Our fellows have told us that the advice they received from people with personal experience of returning to research was invaluable. So we have created this guide in partnership with past and present Research Career Re-entry Fellows. We hope it will be useful for anyone considering taking a break from research, or planning to return to a career in scientific research. I’d like to thank the Wellcome Trust Research Career Re-entry Fellows for their invaluable work in shaping this guide. Dr Jeremy Farrar Director of the Wellcome Trust A returners’ guide A note from our Fellows This guide has been compiled by past and present Wellcome Trust Research Career Re-entry Fellows. We all have taken a break from research in the past and, thanks to this funding scheme, have since returned to a career in science. We come from a range of scientific backgrounds, and took time away from research for a wide variety of reasons. Some of us have taken a two-year break, some took 20 years, but what we all have in common is the passion, commitment and drive needed to get back into research. We have first-hand experience of the challenges and opportunities involved in relaunching a scientific career after a prolonged break. We hope that our tips and suggestions in this guide will be helpful for anyone who is considering taking a career break or returning to research. Research Career Re-entry Fellows Christiaan van Ooij Helen Arthur Jess Buxton Sally Cowley Giulia Bigotti 4 | Getting back into research Prof. Greg Towers’s lab at UCL. Wellcome Library, London A returners guide | 5 A returners’ guide Introduction A family emergency, a desire to try out a new career, the birth of a child: there are many reasons you might want or need to take a substantial break from research. But more importantly, there is no reason not to. Whatever prompted you to take time out, it’s never too late to get back into research. For some it might mean picking up where they left off in a previous position, for others it could be embracing a chance to retrain, or deciding to move into a whole new field of work, and the good news is there are now more grants and fellowships than ever before specifically designed to help people return to research. This guide has been put together for people who, after a substantial break, are thinking about making the step back into research in biomedical or public health areas, although the advice given here should be broad enough to apply to other fields in science and medicine. The Wellcome Trust provides a Research Career Re-entry Fellowship scheme, and many of the hints and tips in this guide come from fellows who have themselves made the journey back into research. 6 | Getting back into research Looking forward, getting back One of the overwhelming messages that comes Camilla Larsen back from people who have applied for a Wellcome Trust Research Career Research Career Re-entry Fellowship is that, Re-entry Fellow when it comes to returning to research from a MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology King’s College London lengthy career break, the further ahead you plan the easier the whole process will be. In theory, that means starting to think about how and when you will return to research before you have even left, though in practice, circumstances Family matters often make our decisions for us, and leave My decision to take a break wasn’t premeditated or little room for deliberation. What follows is a planned at all. I’d just recently become married, and checklist of things to consider before, or the issue that me and my partner had was that I couldn’t more likely during, a career break that will help become pregnant, which we’d known for a long time. make your re-entry into research as smooth But then, miraculously, I did become pregnant. He was as possible. working in one town and I was working in another, and we were faced with this totally surprise pregnancy. It Finding funding meant that one of us would have to give up our postdoc More and more funding agencies and even so we could be in the same place, and at the time my CV universities themselves now have schemes in was stronger than his, so it was simply a tactical decision place to attract talented people back into because we thought I’d find it easier to take a break at research and keep them there (see page 9 for that stage in my career. examples). Many such schemes require applicants to have at least a PhD and/or several years of relevant work experience, although most have some degree of flexibility. Harry White If you’re considering a career break and are Wellcome Trust Research Career sure you want to return to research at a later Re-entry Fellow Henry Wellcome Building for Biocatalysis date, doing your homework on eligibility University of Exeter requirements for re-entry programmes might help you when it comes to deciding when to time your break. For example, giving yourself six more months to publish results or get that little bit more experience before you take a break A sense of perspective might stand you in better stead if and when you I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a scientist, and it was actually decide you would like to come back to research. my career break that made me realise how much I enjoyed If you’re already on a break and hoping to it, and also that I used to be quite good at it. Before then, I come back to research, it’s important to take into suppose, I just carried on down the career path account how long the application and evaluation unthinkingly. I went off and did other things and process can be, and how much time you might experienced the wider world. I was out for a long time, need to prepare yourself before you apply. seven years, and it helped me realise what a good job doing research is, but that perspective only really came during my break. Getting back into research | 7 8 | Annual Review 2013 A returners’ guide Grants and fellowships for returning researchers Wellcome Trust Research Career Daphne Jackson Fellowships Institutional Awards Re-entry Fellowships Daphne Jackson Fellowships offer the As well as awards from external Wellcome Trust Research Career opportunity to balance an individually funders, there are an increasing Re-entry Fellowships are for tailored retraining programme with a number of schemes available from postdoctoral scientists who have challenging research project in a institutions themselves, aimed at recently decided to restart their suitably supportive environment. academic and research staff who have research career after a continuous They are designed for people hoping taken a career break. For example, the break of at least two years, and provide to return to research after a break of University of Cambridge has recently funding for up to four years full-time two years or more, and offer a launched the Returning Carers or part-time (which includes salary, combination of mentoring, retraining Scheme, which offers funding to assist research and training expenses) at an and research that can be based in a staff who have had a period of absence institution in the UK or Ireland. Learn university or research institute or reduced their working hours to care more at wellcome.ac.uk/ anywhere in the UK. The scheme is for a dependant. Learn more at cam. careerreentry. also open to people who may not hold ac.uk/for-staff/news/support-for- a PhD but have equivalent and returning-carers. Sanger Institute Fellowships relevant research experience. Both the These postdoctoral fellowships help Wellcome Trust and the Medical Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships scientists to return to research after a Research Council also sponsor This scheme may be suitable for career break of 12 months or more, for Daphne Jackson Fellows. Learn more people who have been away from any reason. One fellowship will be at daphnejackson.org. research for a shorter time. These awarded each year after a competitive fellowships, administered by the Royal selection process, with applications British Heart Foundation Career Society, are for outstanding UK linked to specific projects defined by Re-entry Research Fellowships scientists at an early stage of their Sanger Institute faculty members. These fellowships provide an research career who need a flexible Fellowships are for three years and opportunity to re-establish a career in working pattern because of personal can be worked full-time, part-time or cardiovascular science in an circumstances such as parenting or flexibly.