About Researcher Realities

What it is

Researcher Realities is an umbrella initiative that invites conversations among and across the researcher community about the hows of research: the lived realities and experiences of being a researcher. In spotlighting the researcher’s realities, we consciously shift away from outputs and outcomes to focus instead on processes, career histories, and the realities of navigating planned and unplanned life events alongside research. These realities relate to every-day activities such as juggling multiple responsibilities, developing project ideas, applying for funding, making research and career-related decisions in connection to situated circumstances, bouncing back when things go wrong, transitioning into new roles, handling rejections, building teams, developing others, collaborating with a variety of colleagues and partners, planning with risks, and much more. 

Researcher Realities conversations happen in a variety of formats throughout the academic year, including: 

• annual Researcher Realities event 
• pop-up events
• PI Researcher Realities sessions
• Curated Blog Series

Researcher Realities is, therefore, all about visibility of experiences, not about solutions. 

Why we do it

We know from our researchers what is often found to be the most useful in workshops or at events: the opportunity to gain insights into someone’s personal experiences and the sharing of approaches, practices, tips, and lessons learned. Stories of personal experiences offer touchstones of inspiration and validation, bring to light the multiplicity of career journeys into and out of research, and give a sense of “it’s not just me”. 

By prompting reflections and enabling the sharing of experiences across disciplines and career stages, we aim to promote open, transparent, and inclusive research cultures. We are motivated to bring visibility to “hidden” experiences and challenges, facilitate best-practice sharing, and champion underrepresented voices and topics. Through these open and reflective conversations, we hope to encourage and contribute to community building. 

Upcoming events

Save the date! Our annual Researcher Realities event will take place on Tuesday, 11th March 2025. 

To hear about any up-coming events and keep up to date, you can subscribe to our blog. 

IAD's researcher development blog - IAD4researchers

Past events

We aim to have downloadable PDF programme summaries of these events available soon. Please check back soon.

Resources

You can catch up on recordings from some of our conversations. 

Researcher Realities | Video Recordings  

How you can bring Researcher Realities to your communities 

We are keen to encourage Researcher Realities events in local communities and contexts. To support you in doing this, please read our guide which sets out our expectations and offers practical advice on setting up an event / a session. 

Guide for running a Research Realities Event in your local communities (PDF)

If you wish to discuss your event idea, get in touch with Dr Anna Pilz in the Researcher Development Team at iad.researchers@ed.ac.uk 

We want to hear about your Researcher Realities – Get involved

If you are a University of Edinburgh researcher and wish to submit an idea for a future Researcher Realities event or wish to share your own researcher realities, please get in touch. 

You have two options to submit an idea:

1. Submitting anonymously your idea 
2. Emailing iad.researchers@ed.ac.uk.