To understand the real training needs of students and professionals in the
research world, it's helpful to visualize the journey that takes them from their
undergraduate studies to a career in a research intensive role in, say, academia
or corporate R&D. Along the way, we can identify some typical personas and get a
sense of how their skill sets, and hence their training needs, evolve as they
progress through their careers.
Many students get their first taste of research at the senior undergraduate
level. As graduate students they're likely to be running experiments of their own,
communicating their results to peers and professors, and possibly even publishing
in scholarly journals. The transferable skills they acquire at this stage of
their educational career will be crucial in setting them up for success in the
professional world, whether in academia, industry, or some other branch of research.
Recent studies of undergraduate research in the US have highlighted some
pervasive skills gaps in this area. To help solve this problem we're developing
a new training program called Research as a Transferable Skill,
focusing on critical professional competencies for students who are
planning to pursue a career in a research related field.
A key outcome of the training is that the student will understand the benefits of
developing what we might call a researcher mindset while at college.
We believe this can significantly enhance their prospects for long-term
employability and career success.
PhD level students come under increasing pressure to deliver real research results
and ultimately to publish those results in the literature. Unfortunately, the skills
required to plan and execute well-managed, reproducible research are
often not formally taught in graduate research programs. Generally, the student
learns them through what is in effect an apprenticeship program with or without
close guidance depending on the support offered by more senior
colleagues. To address these needs we're developing a new training program called
Advanced Research Skills, in which graduate students and early career
researchers will master the essential skills that will help them navigate the
critical phases of the research workflow cycle, including, for example: how to develop
a testable research hypothesis,
how to plan a research project, how to execute a well-organized, safe
reproducible project, and, not least, how to communicate research results
through publication and presentation. As researchers become more experienced and
acquire expertise in their chosen fields as well as more general professional
skills, they typically spend less time at the laboratory bench and more time on
the administrative and financial aspects of running a research program.
They're more likely to be focused on getting the next round of research funded,
managing teams of more junior researchers, and developing fruitful
collaborations with senior colleagues, as well as managing and advancing their
careers. Our training program called Professional Skills for Research Leaders
is designed to assist senior researchers who need to deploy these more general skills
in complex research environments.
Research ethics, or more broadly, responsible conduct of research, remains
a critical consideration and a mandated training requirement for researchers
throughout their experimental careers. Key considerations in this area are
things like academic integrity, ethical approaches to the use of human and animal
subjects in research, and the proper management and analysis of research data.
Epigeum has a highly-regarded training program in this area, which has been
widely adopted in research institutions across the world.
In summary, this series of integrated training programs from Epigeum is
designed to provide continuous access to training resources at the right level
and at the right time.
By developing these programs in close collaboration with research institutions,
we're providing a unique offering that meets the true training and development
needs of researchers across the entire career arc, from advanced undergraduate
students to research leaders.