"research culture" blog posts

Life as a Researcher doesn't have to mean Life as an AcademicProsper icon strip

Life as a Researcher doesn't have to mean Life as an Academic

As we finalise preparations for our first ‘business as usual’ Prosper career development cohort at the University of Liverpool in 2024, we find ourselves reflecting on our two pilot cohorts, and what we learned along the way.

Posted on: 24 January 2024

Recording and Reflecting on Prosper: A Snapshot Analysis of the Cohort JournalsProsper icon strip

Recording and Reflecting on Prosper: A Snapshot Analysis of the Cohort Journals

As our first cohort of 53 postdocs from the University of Liverpool finish their year on our pilot cohort Dr Tamara West, one of our Research Staff Developers, reflects on the role of journaling and offers some insights from an analysis of journal entries.

Posted on: 11 April 2022

Prosper recruits second cohort of PostdocsProsper icon strip

Prosper recruits second cohort of Postdocs

Following a competitive application process, 86 postdocs from across the University of Liverpool, Lancaster University and University of Manchester have been invited to join Prosper’s second career development pilot, conditional on the agreement of PIs and funders.

Posted on: 13 January 2022

My Prosper JourneyProsper icon strip

My Prosper Journey

Alex James, a chemistry postdoc and a member of our first Prosper cohort based at the University of Liverpool, has just landed a new job at a new materials start-up company called Puraffinity. In his blog he talks about his experience of Prosper and how it helped him prepare for and ultimately land his job.

Posted on: 26 November 2021

Reflections from the Prosper pilotProsper icon strip

Reflections from the Prosper pilot

As we open recruitment for our second postdoc career development pilot, we hear from 3 postdocs from our current cohort at the University of Liverpool. Egidijus Kukstas, School of Physical Sciences, Smitha Maretvadakethope, Department of Mathematical Sciences and Blanca Perez Sepulveda, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, reflect on their Prosper experiences so far.

Posted on: 23 August 2021

Prosper career development pilot: ensuring a diverse cohortProsper icon strip

Prosper career development pilot: ensuring a diverse cohort

As 53 postdocs join our career development pilot, we reflect on the final make-up of this first cohort and the process of recruiting these participants

Posted on: 24 June 2021

Iterating the Prosper portal – what’s new for summer 2021? Prosper icon strip

Iterating the Prosper portal – what’s new for summer 2021?

Back in 2019 when Prosper began, stakeholder feedback and co-creation were baked into our core objectives for how we would develop this new approach to postdoc career development. We knew that if we wanted to achieve our goals of revolutionising the postdoc career development environment, we would need to build Prosper in a way that was driven by insights from postdocs, PIs and employers alike from day one if we were to provide what they really needed.

Posted on: 21 May 2021

How can you want what you don’t know about? The importance of career visibilityProsper icon strip

How can you want what you don’t know about? The importance of career visibility

Our Research Staff Developers, Dr Fiona McBride and Dr Catherine Charlwood, take a look at what we know about postdocs' hopes and expectations for their careers, plus what Prosper can do to broaden these.

Posted on: 13 January 2021

Looking to the future during National Postdoc Appreciation Week Prosper icon strip

Looking to the future during National Postdoc Appreciation Week

In the first of our guest blog series, Dr Annette Bramley, Director of the N8 Research Partnership, takes a look at how postdocs are vital to the North's Covid-19 recovery.

Posted on: 21 September 2020

Networking: making it work for you Prosper icon strip

Networking: making it work for you

Prosper team members, Katie McAllister and Joanie Magill, take a look at the value of networking and how to do it well. University of Liverpool staff can also explore this further through supporting content and resources on the Prosper portal linked throughout this piece.

Posted on: 17 August 2020

Co-creating Prosper with employers Prosper icon strip

Co-creating Prosper with employers

Co-creating Prosper with employers – why it matters, how we’re doing it and what we’ve learnt so far. Prosper's Stakeholder Engagaement Manager, Katie McAllister, takes a look at the importance of co-creating our model with employer partners and what we've learnt so far about their needs and priorities.

Posted on: 18 June 2020

Self-assessment tools: Knowing me, knowing what to do Prosper icon strip

Self-assessment tools: Knowing me, knowing what to do

TL:DR Life is too short to try out every career you could possibly do, so how to narrow it down? Use self-assessment tools to help you clarify what you are both good at and like doing. Self-assessment tools are used across the board, both within and beyond academia.

Posted on: 18 June 2020

Myth-busting careers beyond academia – challenging assumptions and preconceptions Prosper icon strip

Myth-busting careers beyond academia – challenging assumptions and preconceptions

We've come across a range of preconceptions about work beyond academia. Read on to seperate fact from fiction.

Posted on: 18 June 2020

Who’s who? Profiling the UK postdoc population Prosper icon strip

Who’s who? Profiling the UK postdoc population

In our latest blog, Prosper's Evaluation Researcher, Dr Peny (Panagiota) Sotiropoulou, dives into the data and looks at what it can tell us about the UK postdoc population.

Posted on: 27 May 2020

What is a postdoc? part 2

What is a postdoc? part 2

Following part 1, in this piece we take a closer look at the skills, personality traits and outlook of postdocs.

Posted on: 13 May 2020

Why Prosper? lightbulb

Why Prosper?

In our second blog, Prosper’s Senior Project Manager, Lucy Williams and Communications Manager, Catherine Kennedy take look at the project's wider context and why it's needed now more than ever.

Posted on: 27 April 2020

What is a postdoc? part 1

What is a postdoc? part 1

Since Prosper began, we've often found ourselves facing the question 'so what is a postdoc?' Our Research Staff Developers, Dr Catherine Charlwood and Dr Fiona McBride, look at defining the term and what it means in relation to Prosper.

Posted on: 27 April 2020

State of play: understanding the current postdoc career development experience Signposts pointing in different directions

State of play: understanding the current postdoc career development experience

In our first blog, Prosper’s Research Staff Developers, Dr Catherine Charlwood and Dr Fiona McBride, discuss the findings of our initial focus groups with postdoctoral researchers and Principal Investigators.

Posted on: 20 February 2020