Working Scientist

In this first episode of a six-part weekly series about funding, Julie Gould outlines the US National Institutes of Health's (NIH) grant review process and the extent to which reviewers evaluating the same applications agree or disagree. Is the current system the best way, she asks Elizabeth Pier, lead author of a March 2018 paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Low agreement among reviewers evaluating the same NIH grant applications.

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This episode concludes with a slot sponsored by the European Research Council. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, its president, outlines the organisation's role and remit as a grant funder.

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Chris Woolston and Julie Gould discuss the findings of Nature's 2018 salary and job satisfaction survey, which found that despite some common concerns about pay, promotion prospects, bullying and discrimination, 75% are happy with their career choice and would recommend it to others.

Also, ahead of the 2019 Nature Careers Events Guide publication later this month, Julie talks to Jamie Krueger about her drive to make conferences more accessible for mothers and other researchers who juggle caring responsibilities alongside work.

Krueger, a neuroscience graduate student at the University of California Davis, had her daughter three years ago and the 2019 Guide includes an interview with her.

Earlier this year she chaired a panel discussion at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego, California. Its focus was female scientists who began their careers and family in parallel.

See also:

Satisfaction in science

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Alexandra Olaya-Castro describes how she draws on experiences she faced earlier in her career to support women and colleagues from minority groups in her current role as professor of physics at University College London. "Like any stereotype you can only break it down by doing what you really think is right. But you also need a network of colleagues that you can trust. The advice I give to both men and women is that if there is a minority in any group, pay them attention. Be sensitive to that person," she says.

Astrophysicist Mirjana Pović, winner of Nature Research’s inaugural Inspiring Science Award, one of two prizes developed in partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies, describes her efforts to encourage African women and girls to pursue science careers, a role she juggles alongside her own research at the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute in Addis Ababa and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada, Spain.

See also:

• Meet the space researcher smoothing the path for women in science across Africa
• Hungarian association wins prize for promoting participation of women in science

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The Association of Hungarian Women in Science (NATE) has won Nature Research's inaugural Innovation in Science Award, one of two global prizes launched in partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies and presented at a ceremony in London held on 30 October 2018.

In this podcast Julie Gould talks to NATE president Katalin Balázsi about the organisations's achievements and its success at inspiring women and girls to develop careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Balázsi was one of ten women scientists who founded the association ten years ago. A follow-up podcast interview with Mirjana will go live soon.

Many of the women helped by NATE juggle their careers alongside family commitments. Nana Lee, a mother of three and an assistant professor in biochemistry at the University of Toronto, concludes this episode with some advice on how to strike a balance between the two competing pressures.

A companion prize, the Inspiring Science Award, was presented to Mirjana Pović, an astrophysicist at the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute in Addis Ababa.

See also:

• Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Science and Innovating Science
• Hungarian association wins prize for promoting participation of women in science
• Meet the space researcher smoothing the path for women in science across Africa
• New awards aim to celebrate women in science

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Lego Grad Student is the alter ego of an early career researcher whose schadenfreude-laden Twitter posts "capture an adult's distress in adult education." He tells Jack Leeming how a childhood love of Lego was reignited after a painful dissertation catch-up with his supervisor. Jack asks about his anonymity, his advice to other graduate students, and if his 63,000 @legogradstudent followers need to worry about the real-life person behind the poignant posts. 

Julian Kirchherr applied his experiences of running a start-up to his PhD, which he completed in less than two years. His book, The Lean PhD, describes how the principles adopted by many start-ups to get "minimal viable products" to market quickly can make PhD programmes more time-efficient and impactful. Kircherr discusses his ideas with Julie Gould.

In early October more than 800 early career researchers attended the annual Naturejobs Career Expo in London, the last to be held before the UK is due leave the European Union in 2019. Julie talks to four PhD students about their career aspirations, and if Brexit is influencing their plans.

See also:

• How to build a better PhD
• Graduate survey: A love-hurt relationship
• Teach undergraduates that doing a PhD will require them to embrace failure

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UK careers consultant Sarah Blackford describes how a "SWOT analysis" of your skills can identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in your career roadmap. Sarah's sound advice might well have been followed by biotechnology engineer Samuel Juillot and materials engineer Arnold Oswald. In April 2018 the two friends opened Eurekafé in Toulouse, France. Their crowdfunded cafe of curiosities is aimed at the city's scientists and the general public, offering science-related events and exhibits alongside snacks and drinks. They tell Julie Gould how the idea came about. 

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Career mobility is a fact of life in science and there are plenty of opportunities to study and work abroad. Andrew Spencer, a workplace trainer based in the UK, describes some of the cultural differences and hierarchies you may face when you move to another country, and how best to handle them.

And Erna Karalija, a plant physiologist and assistant professor at the University of Sarajevo, talks about the current academic environment in Bosnia, and how it has been shaped by the country's turbulent recent history.

See also:

How to fit in when you join a lab abroad

How to deliver sound science in resource-poor regions

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