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

 

Prosper Portal

Prosper is a new portal that is specifically designed for postdocs and provides tools and resources for figuring out where you might want to go in your career.

Secondment Opportunity

OPEN CALL. 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. The secondee can be based anywhere in the UK and work remotely. You do not need to have worked in policy areas before but you must have knowledge of the wider considerations of industrial decarbonisation.

Secondment Opportunity

NECCUS is an alliance of industry, government and experts, united by their determination to drive the changes and programmes needed to reduce carbon emissions from industrial sources in Scotland and beyond. They are seeking a secondee to provide analysis and research on Scottish, UK and European policy focussed on industrial decarbonisation in Scotland, in particular policy associated with CCUS and hydrogen, to the members of NECCUS. For more information, please click the link below.

ECRA News

Read about some of IDRIC’s Early Career Researcher’s perspectives of IDRIC Annual Conference 2023 below.

ECRA Community

ECRA Past Events & Resources

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.

Industrial Decarbonisation Policy Debrief

IDRIC’s policy team gave an extensive policy debrief on all key aspects of industrial decarbonisation policy prior to IDRIC’s Annual Conference. Click the link to download the slides to further understanding of the current policy landscape.

Engaging with Industry Workshop

PAST EVENT: On May 15th 2023, IDRIC hosted a Skillfluence-led workshop to provide in-depth and specific training on how to successfully engage with industry stakeholders.

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. 

Secondment Opportunity

DEADLINE PASSED. The CCC Industry team were looking for a researcher to support their analytical work programme to inform advice to Government on the Seventh Carbon Budget.

Secondment Opportunity

DEADLINE PASSED. The Environment Agency were looking for a researcher with systems thinking or wider industrial decarbonisation experience to provide evidence to inform strategic planning for net zero.