early and mid
career academics

Goals

Events

Highlights

Committee Members

Get Involved

The Early- and Mid-Career Academic (EMCA) Committee aims to support EMCAs from all career backgrounds, to craft a fulfilling academic career pathway and excel in research and teaching.

We achieve this by building a community of practice and fostering and nurturing diversity, inclusion, peer support, and cross disciplinary collaboration. We strongly believe in the importance of creating an environment and culture in which everyone has an opportunity to flourish and succeed.

EMCA Committee goals

Our goals are to:

Facilitate career development opportunities and organise diverse training events, including leadership training, aligned with the needs and trajectories of EMCAs.
Provide networking and social event opportunities to enhance cross disciplinary collaboration.
Facilitate peer support, mentoring, and mentorship opportunities and develop funding opportunities specifically for EMCAs.
Organise events to showcase EMCA activity e.g. contributing to the annual Emerging Leaders Showcase and other symposia.
Convene career-focused events to showcase potential career trajectories and pathways.
Identify research theme/topics that can be translated into non-award education activities (e.g. short courses).
Develop and initiate fundraising activities to support EMCA seed funding and awards.
Advocate and promote the health and wellbeing of EMCAs to foster a supportive and successful career.

Our events and initiatives

Social networking events

Flinders in the Pub: This themed event is held at the Flinders Tavern 2-3 times per year, presented to a general population audience who then have an opportunity to ask questions and know more about what we do.

Quarterly morning/afternoon tea/coffee social catch-ups: These are informal opportunities for us to meet and share our experiences, challenges and opportunities and just get to know each other.

Recreational and fundraising activities

In collaboration with the Flinders Foundation, we engage in a range of recreational and fundraising events including:

Movie nights
Bowling nights and other activity-based social events
Running group
Lumary City-to-Bay Fun Run
Bunnings BBQs
End-of-year social events

Educational and professional development events

In collaboration with the FHMRI RED Hub, we host a number of educational and professional development workshops including:

Future career pathways
Industry engagement
Building CV/track record
Consumer engagement
EMCA speed dating

Get involved in our events

To keep in the loop with all EMCA activities, please reach out to the committee to be added to our Teams group and email distribution list: cmph.emca@flinders.edu.au

Previous events and highlights

Future Pathways: Career & Life

Held on 9 May, 2022, a panel of four leaders from different career pathways met with Flinders University EMCAs discussing strategies to identify and plan a career that best matches their strengths and values.

Dr Pallave Dasari (Strategic Partnerships and Development Officer, Chief Scientist for South Australia), Dr Vicky Staikopoulos (Managing Director and Co-founder of Woven Optics and Product Manager at Miniprobes), Dr Reuben Jacob (Chief Operating Officer, Aged Care Centre for Growth and Translational Research, Flinders University) and Professor James Smith (Deputy Dean of Rural and Remote Health, and Matthew Flinders Professor of Health and Social Equity at Flinders University) provided incredible advice on how to approach and navigate careers in academia, industry and government.

Flinders in the Pub

In the spirit of International Women’s Day, Dr Lauren Meyer (College of Science and Engineering), Dr Sarah Hunter (College of Nursing and Health Sciences) and Dr Prita Asih (College of Medicine and Public Health) aced this challenge on 29 March, 2022.

The patrons of the Flinders Tav enjoyed hearing about tiger sharks and their endangered ecosystem, knowledge translation and bilateral partnership between end users and researchers, and the most recent advances in Alzheimer’s disease research. All of this while nibbling on tasty food and sharing a good drink with their friends!

2022 Emerging Leaders Showcase

The 2022 Emerging Leaders Showcase was held over two days (Thursday 24th and Friday 25th November) at the Alere Function Centre in Bedford Park.

Our jam-packed program, featured speakers talking about a range of topics related to medicine and public health, e-poster presentations, sponsor displays, a student art exhibition, music and networking opportunities.

Uniting academics, teaching specialists, clinician scientists, professional staff and students, consumers, industry sponsors, and invited guests to network, share diverse research insights, and contend for an ELS Award.

2022 Emerging Leaders Showcase Recap

2021 Emerging Leaders Showcase

The second Emerging Leaders showcase was held on 25th-26th November 2021 and was an overwhelming success with more than 300 registrants across the two days including academics, professional staff, HDR students, invited guests and sponsors.

Highly motivating and inspiring talks were given by the plenary speakers Professor Billie Bonevski, Associate Professor Simone Tur and Professor Peter Eastwood, as well as the panel of academic leaders (Professor Alison Jones, Dr Courtney Ryder, Associate Professor Maree Meredith and Professor Peter Eastwood).

EMCAs and HDRs from a broad variety of disciplines including Human Physiology, Pharmacology, Neuroscience, Public Health, Paramedicine, Oncology, Sleep, Immunology, Molecular Virology, Clinical Translation, Proteomics and Epidemiology to name a few showcased their ground-breaking work in research and teaching and there was also an art exhibition were the attendees got to admire the beautiful artworks created by some very talented students within the College.

Lunch and tea breaks were accompanied by live music performed by two exceptionally talented bands of CMPH Students: Ectopic Rhythm and DRS ACDC and conference was rated as excellent by the delegates.

2021 Emerging Leaders Showcase Report

Previous events photo gallery

01 June, 2022

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