Demonstrating research independence
With Dr Cristina Nostro
Cristina started her research career not taking no for an answer. As an undergraduate student in Florence (Italy), she had hoped to access the Erasmus programme. There had been strong links between her university and the University of Manchester. However, the programme had been stopped. She managed to challenge this change and created an opportunity that enabled her to go to the University of Manchester. She was encouraged by a professor from Florence to reach out to one of his collaborators. This led her to work in a research group in her spare time and the summer while on her Erasmus exchange; it allowed her to discover what doing research was about.
After she finished her degree in Italy, she returned to the UK for a PhD at The University of Manchester. Her PhD then became a springboard for further research opportunities. She initially considered doing a Postdoc in Europe and was quickly offered a position.
This first Postdoc offer built her confidence that she could indeed obtain a Postdoc. It allowed her the time to take a breather and consider more carefully what type of Postdoc she may want to do to optimise her research direction. Cristina realised this career stage was a turning point between different career directions. She also had a job offer for a position in a pharmaceutical company. Her family would have probably liked to see her return home. This can feel like being pulled in many directions. Conversations with peers and mentors were critical in convincing her that finding the right space to take her expertise mattered.
The right space emerged in conversations with an academic she had met at a conference, followed by an interview and the courage to pester this academic to see a Postdoc opportunity manifests itself. Taking the first offer could have been easy, but having the patience to build a chance to be in the right space took persistence and self-belief.
More about Cristina
Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:
How may cutting ties with your PI be needed, even when you would prefer not to, to demonstrate your independence?
How supportive PIs invite Postdocs to build ownership of new research directions?
What’s our role in getting others with less privilege the opportunity to discover the world of research?
Some reflections to ponder based on my discussion with Cristina
When the rhetoric of demonstrating research independence feels a bit much
During her Postdoc, Cristina relocated from New York to Toronto, where her PI moved his lab. She then started to apply widely for academic positions. She eventually secured an academic position in the same institution as her PI. This context is not unusual but often challenging when accessing independent research funding and demonstrating research autonomy.
Early on in her postdoc position, Cristina was aware that many of the Postdocs in her team were working in similar areas. She felt that the space might be crowded. Cristina had the insight to discuss having a side project with her PI. The conversation led her to develop a research avenue where she was the only one during a specific type of work, further afield from what other people were working on in the team.
She became one of the few people worldwide working on pancreatic differentiation.
With her appointment in the same department as her PI, she felt even more compelled to demonstrate that she was leading her own work, not in the shadow of her previous PI. Getting funders to believe in this autonomy of thinking can be difficult for new PIs when they continue to collaborate closely with their Postdoc supervisor. Cristina took drastic measures and cut all research ties with her previous PI. Even though stopping these collaborations made little scientific sense, this was needed to demonstrate her scientific autonomy externally.
Eventually, once she had demonstrated her scientific independence through her grant capture portfolio, she felt that nobody could accuse her of not being scientifically independent. She has now resumed her collaborative interactions with her previous PI and is continuing to reach out to many other potential collaborators.
o Do you have a side research project to initiate your research independence?
o Who are the collaborators you are building relationships with who will help demonstrate to a funder that you are building your research independence?
o Have you dared talk with your PI about what you need to articulate your research independence?
What empowering others can look like
When Cristina started to discuss with her PI about having a side project, which could become a plan B project if her main project did not work out, he did not either say- no, I am paying you to do this specific project, or - yes OK go and figure a new project out. He was supportive in helping her identify an area that his lab was not heavily focused on looking at and which had the potential to build something interesting for her that would not put her in competition with his team.
Mastery in research mentorship is a fine art of creating a space for others to build their own research ideas without abandoning them to figure things out alone. For many researchers, proposing new ideas and research directions can feel hugely vulnerable. Not everyone sits in the research environment fuelled with confidence to suggest new ideas. Creating a listening space for others to share new ideas means battling our judgment monster when others come up with ideas that we may disagree with or assess as not so great. Inviting stupid ideas is empowering. It also means guiding the reflection process through careful questions, not to give answers but to create a moment of discovery and insights in others.
Many of us jump very quickly on the ideas of others. We batter them and want to sound clever with our ideas. Humility in idea development does not mean, not fighting for what we believe in, but welcoming conversations that can shake up our thinking status quo.
o Who is challenging your thinking right now? Can you invite more conversations with them?
o Suppose you are usually quick at jumping and breaking the ideas of others. Could you shift to a new mode and experiment with what may come out of conversations when you are putting aside your judging voice and inviting curiosity about how others think about things?
o If no one challenges your thinking, then you are missing out. Who do you need to join to get you out of your thinking comfort?
Letting others experience the world of research
Cristina shared that as an undergraduate on a European exchange in Manchester, she had the opportunity to work alongside a Postdoc as a volunteer. While opportunities exist for funded research internships, they may not give students equal chances to experience the research environment. Unfunded research internships have always existed, but some institutions may now prevent some of these opportunities to avoid exploiting students. While this is all good in principle, it could limit the chance for some students to experience the world of research.
In the interest of diversifying the workforce, I firmly believe that providing opportunities for students from minorities to experience the world of research should be part of the positive actions institutions take. Unpaid summer internships are rarely an option for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, so offering dedicated funding to create these opportunities is essential in shifting the balance of those who apply for PhDs.
For researchers - taking an undergraduate student under your wing during the summer may feel like a time commitment you do not have. This is fair enough! This opens the door to others, particularly those less likely to access these opportunities easily. We have all been helped by someone along the way. Who is it that you could invite to discover the world of research?
o Is there a scheme in your institution to help you supervise an undergraduate student who is interested in exploring further what research is really like?
o Could you see your contribution to opening the doors to research to a student from a minority/ disadvantaged background as your way of contributing to the EDI agenda in the research environment?
o Suppose you encounter a talented student who does not “see themselves” in the research environment. Can you take it upon yourself to get them to experience research firsthand so that they can discover this for themselves?
“benefiting from other’s expertise, not just their expertise, but also how they approach a certain problem or questions and how they deal with things”
