I attended the BMA academic trainees’ conference on 5 November. The conference was very inspiring and encouraging. The morning speakers talked about their own career experiences through different paths. One had been an American rock band singer before she started medical school as a mature student and now she is a senior lecturer in pain medicine. The main message was it is never too late to start an academic career with a passion for research.
It was mentioned in the conference that there has been increasing pharmaceutical industry partnership with research groups in Europe. Innovative medicine initiatives fund 2 billion pounds each year with interested parties from European academia, small- and medium-sized enterprises, patient organisations, regulatory agencies, large non-EFPIA companies etc. Therefore there are huge funding opportunities for institutions with industry partnership.
In the afternoon, there were 8 workshops on pharmaceutical medicine, academic public health, less than full time training, medical education, career planning, academic training schemes, publication, and research design. I attended a career planning workshop which was hosted by Dr Michael Bannon, the Oxford postgraduate Dean. The message I found useful was the strengths needed for success in academia include good administrative skills, leadership, team working, finance, communication and effective/efficient work methods.
Lei Liu ACF ST2 Ophthalmology