The Daphne Jackson Trust is a small charity that returns talented professionals to their research careers after a break. As you may have experienced yourself, taking a career break – perhaps to raise a family, care for a relative or deal with a health condition – can have a huge impact on your career. In a research or technology environment, the effect is often amplified: you may find your skills need refining, your confidence and self-belief might be lower, you might even be seen as too bigger risk to employ, and routinely find yourself outcompeted in job interviews, all of which creates a vicious circle. Eventually many people are forced to choose a different career path. This represents a significant loss of skills, knowledge and experience that we need to retain.
The Daphne Jackson Trust aims to prevent this by offering tailored and flexible Fellowships at any University, R&D organisation or institute anywhere across the UK, in any field of research. The Trust has recently launched a new ‘Research Support Fellowship’ that offers a unique opportunity for anyone working in a research support role to refresh their skills and knowledge. In this blog, we explain more about what these Fellowships are and how they might create new opportunities for this often-overlooked group of professionals with non-linear careers.
Amplifying the voice of returners
The Daphne Jackson Trust has helped nearly 500 researchers return to their careers through Daphne Jackson Fellowships. They really do succeed – 9 out of 10 former Daphne Jackson Fellows stay in research or teaching at least five years after their Fellowship. Collectively, Daphne Jackson Fellowships have saved over 1250 years of research experience and talent from being lost from the sector.
Daphne Jackson Trust’s Chief Executive, Dr Katie Perry comments; “For the UK to continue to be competitive on the world stage, there needs to be investment in the talent pool of all of those working in research – including technicians, technologists and anyone else working in a research support role. Taking a career break – often for very necessary reasons – should not mean it’s the end of someone’s career”.
What are Daphne Jackson Research Support Fellowships?
Our Research Support Fellowships are a new offering tailored towards anyone that supports research in a technical way. It could be a Technician, Technologist, Lab Assistant, Analyst, Machine Specialist or similar, in any form of research. These professionals work closely with all members of a research team to conduct experiments, develop protocols and procedures, collect data, develop prototypes and optimise research methodologies. They are highly skilled in laboratory techniques and instrumentation and are often specialised in certain fields of study. They also play a key role in maintaining machinery and training of research staff.
Daphne Jackson Research Support Fellowships are designed to be fully flexible to meet the individual’s needs. They are aimed at those who have had a career break for two years or more, taken for a family, caring or health reason. These Fellowships are focused on retraining and reskilling in specific research and engineering techniques. They are open to all research settings – academia, industry and research institutes anywhere in the UK. By the end of the Fellowship, the individual will be reskilled and proficient in new techniques.
How do you apply for a Daphne Jackson Research Support Fellowship?
The Trust is committed to delivering these Fellowships and is working hard to secure the funding that will make them a success. Our application process is relatively simple – initially, you just need to register your interest on our website, via this link: https://daphnejackson.org/research-support-fellowships/current-opportunities-for-research-support-fellowships/
When opportunities become available, we will then advertise them via the website and contact anyone who has registered their interest where there is a matching subject area or speciality.
All the other details around the application process are described via the link above. If you prefer, you can also talk to us directly by contacting Dr Andy Clempson, Project Lead at the Daphne Jackson Trust: a.clempson@surrey.ac.uk
Please do spread the word amongst your colleagues and we look forward to working alongside returners to help restart their careers.