Blog - BSG Emerging Researchers in Ageing Conference

ACRC Academy PhD students put on a Leadership workshop for early-career researchers in ageing and care.

The Emerging Researchers in Ageing network is a community of PhD and postdoc researchers from across the UK, with a shared interest in age and ageing, with an interdisciplinary scope that fits well with the ACRC’s own ethos.

So when its lively pre-conference event was announced, with a call for contributions, it felt like a great opportunity to share the work we had been doing – as a team of ACRC Academy students – on leadership in ageing and care.

One of the first things the 2022-23 cohort of PhD students did, when we joined the ACRC Academy, was to apply for funding for a project focused on applied learning about leadership. It was an effort to get to grips with the “leadership” aspect of the Academy’s mission, and to think about what this meant for our own research and practice.

When the grant funding wrapped up in July 2023, we had created a workshop structure and workbook for students and early-career researchers, which aimed to help others explore and reflect on their own approaches to leadership.

We were delighted to be invited to give a 30-minute workshop as part of the Emerging Researchers in Ageing event in early July. Two members of the original team – Wanok Godfrey and Emilie McSwiggan – were able to attend the event in person, and facilitated the workshop on behalf of the whole team.

During the course of a packed half hour, we shared our learning about imposter syndrome, dealing with uncertainty, working out our values, and making constructive plans. The workshop was lively and engaging, with people moving about, making new connections, and sharing their thoughts and insights. We were pleased that it seemed to be well-received, and participants were keen to receive the workbook by email afterwards.

It was great to be part of the Emerging Researchers in Ageing event, too; and to be connected to a wider community of people who share our research interests. The event was held the day before the annual British Society of Gerontology (BSG) conference, and was packed with research presentations and networking opportunities – ending with half the attendees walking down to a nearby pub, to continue conversation over pizza and drinks.

As well as an opportunity to share our work, we both feel that we have learned so much from the people we met, and look forward to joining future networks events and activities, and making new connections. We are really pleased that a Scottish chapter of the network is starting up again in September, with one of our ACRC Academy peers, Kayla Ostrishko, as part of the organising team. The BSG conference – and the associated Emerging Researchers in Ageing event – takes place every year in July. We really enjoyed our experience with it, and would definitely encourage other ACRC PhD students to think about taking part in future.

Credit: This blog was written by Emilie McSwiggan and Wanok Godfrey, with input from Kayla Ostrishko. The full team involved with the Leadership project were: Elisa Cardamone, Clare Halpenny, Wanok Godfrey, Emilie McSwiggan, Kayla Ostrishko, Vasilis Raptis, Sumetha Uthayakumar and David Vaca-Benavides.