Early Career Research Academy

The IDRIC Early Career Researchers Academy (ECRA) aims to enhance the impact of our researchers within the UK industrial decarbonisation community and ensure our researchers can thrive in a diverse range of career pathways that are critical for net zero.

The IDRIC ECRA is committed to supporting our early career researchers through a range of training and funding opportunities.

The programme will be designed and led by ECRs to ensure maximum impact. To be eligible for the ECRA, researchers must:

  • Identify as an early career researcher (PhD student, PDRA or lecturer).
  • Be within 10 years of graduating from their PhD.
  • Work on a project related to industrial decarbonisation.

Click the button to sign up for IDRIC mailing list and click the ECRA option. By signing up to become an ECRA member, you will gain exclusive access to our Slack community, a platform to connect IDRIC ECRs. You will also receive our quarterly ECRA newsletter that is full of internal and external opportunities for ECRs. We source opportunities so you don’t have to.

ECRA Committee

The ECRA committee work with IDRIC’s Secretariat to help steer the ECRA programme and are involved in supporting the strategic direction of IDRIC. The ECRA chair is rotated quarterly and attends the Management Board meeting to ensure the ECR voice is embedded at the centre of IDRIC.

Abbas Abdulrafiu

Abbas Abdulrafiu

University of Sussex
Amir Jahanbaksh

Amir Jahanbaksh

Heriot-Watt University
Harriet Smith

Harriet Smith

University of Cardiff
Jeannie Tan

Jeannie Tan

Heriot-Watt University

ECRA Opportunities

Secondment Opportunity

The Environment Agency are looking for a researcher with systems thinking or wider industrial decarbonisation experience to provide evidence to inform strategic planning for net zero. This is 6 month+ secondment with flexible working at home, hybrid or in an EA office. Deadline: 7th June.

Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit Internship

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) have a summer internship opportunity that is open to all students (undergraduate, masters, PhD) and ECRs. For more information, click the link.

National Postdoc Conference

C-DICE (Centre for Postdoctoral Development in Infrastructure Construction and Energy) are delighted to host the UKRSA/Vitae biennial National Postdoc Conference in 2023 as part of Postdoc Appreciation Week – the only conference in the UK dedicated solely to the celebration of postdoctoral researchers from any university, in any discipline. Loughborough University on 19 September for talks, workshops, networking and a celebration of postdocs!

Secondment Funding

Secondments are excellent conduits to increase knowledge exchange between researchers and stakeholders and provide career opportunities. That’s why we have created the IDRIC secondment fund. Interested in being seconded? Click here.

Impact Accelerator Funding

If you are an IDRIC researcher and want to create pathways to increase the impact of your research in the industrial clusters then apply now.

Flexible funding

A proportion of our £1.8M Flexible Fund will support Early Career Researchers to lead research projects to accelerate decarbonisation in the UK’s industrial clusters. 

Engaging with Industry Workshop

PAST EVENT: OnMay 15th 2023, IDRIC led a Skillfluence workshop to provide in-depth and specific training on how to successfully engage with industry stakeholders. We will also provide an extensive decarbonisation policy debrief.

Career Coaching


PAST EVENT: Looking for the next step in your career? IDRIC are working with Sandrine Soubes from Tesselle Development to provide IDRIC’s early career researchers the opportunity to work with a professional and experienced career coach. Click here to find out more. 

Secondment Opportunity

DEADLINE PASSED. The CCC Industry team are looking for a researcher to support their analytical work programme to inform advice to Government on the Seventh Carbon Budget. There is the potential to work on a range of issues related to industrial decarbonisation depending on the background of the secondee.

Secondment Opportunity

DEADLINE PASSED. The Scottish Government are seeking a researcher with expertise in industrial decarbonisation to work within their industry decarbonisation team to help develop an expanded policy framework that meets the challenge of Scotland’s net zero targets. You do not need to have worked in policy areas before but you must have knowledge of the wider considerations of industrial decarbonisation.

ECRA News

ECRA Workshop – 15th May

IDRIC have created a dedicated workshop for all IDRIC early career…

ECRA Community

ECRA Past Events & Resources

Skillfluence Workshop: Engaging with Industry

Skillfluence | LinkedIn

On the 15th May 2023, IDRIC partnered with Skillfluence to deliver a targeted ECR workshop on engaging with industry and improving industry-centric communication. Skillfluence have provided their resource padlet for our ECRs to use. It is a fantastic platform to guide your own journey to developing knowledge exchange skills.  Click the link for more.

ECR Net Zero Conference

IDRIC co-hosted a highly successful conference attended by over 200 ECRs working on Net Zero aligned projects. Click the link for full session recordings.

‘Effective Industry Engagement’ Session

An interesting session on how to effectively engage with industry from the perspective of ECRs, academics and industry representatives. If you are looking to collaborate with industry and ensure your research has direct impact, this is well worth a listen and provides a lot of helpful insight and advice.

‘Industrial Decarbonisation: People and place’ Session

In this session we discussed the activity that is happening on the ground in the UK’s industrial clusters, with a particular focus on the just transition, social licence and the skills needed to meet the industrial decarbonisation challenge.