In your opinion, how much of the process it down to luck and timing? In the current climate, is it practically impossible to get a permanent post in the UK?

I've been invited to interview for a lecturer post (research and teaching) at a UK university. I did a postdoc in the UK but am now outside the system so could use some input.

Interview is all one day. First, a brief presentation plus questions to faculty colleagues on why I am good fit and meet essential criteria, then a standard hour long panel interview with faculty. No research talk / teaching demo. All candidates are virtual.

Is this normally the whole process or a stage before a further round? Is the absence of a job talk standard? I generally assume my agenda and teaching record should be presented per the essential criteria. No single research paper-like talk should occur, at least here.

I'm a recent PhD (2025) who can't find a job. Anyone else feeling the same?

I’m pregnant with twins, 12 weeks now, and it’s been hard. I have been very tired and sick and ended up in hospital once for IV fluids. They say it may get better in the 2nd trimester but also it may not with a twin pregnancy.

I’m an Assistant Professor at an RG university in London, permanent role. I don’t live in London and my schedule so far has been to commute to London (3 hours) and stay there 2-3 days during term time.

I’m starting to get worried about getting sick while I’m in London and needing help, I’ll be on my own, and also more generally I don’t know if I can manage the commute and staying there with such low energy levels.

What can I ask for at work as reasonable adjustments, esp at this relatively early stage? It is highly unlikely that they would be ok with online teaching which means that if I can’t commute, I can’t teach. I don’t know if I can ask for that because someone else will have to teach. I could offer to do more marking in return (?) but that will now only come in Dec/Jan. I’m likely to start mat leave somewhere between mid Jan and mid Feb, depending on how the pregnancy progresses.

It would be helpful to hear from others if they have navigated similar situations. I’m planning to have a conversation with my HoD when I return to work in late September.

I submitted a grant with my PI in the last BBSRC Responsive Mode round before the big pause and change to open calls. They said that final decisions should be made sometime between mid July to end of August, but we've now entered September and I am losing my mind checking my emails constantly with no news! Has anyone heard anything? Should we have heard by now, or is there a reason for the delay?

Anthropic released Fable 5.1 today and their focus has seemed to switch from coding to scientific research. Mathematics has already seen a big jump in AI proofs, conjecture counterexamples and similar.

So by all counts this should be a massive boom for research. Anyone else excited?

Hi all

Has anyone who applied for an ESRC Connect award heard back yet? The turnaround for the scheme has been extremely tight so I’m assuming we should hear this week but just wondering if anyone has heard already. Thank you!

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Hey all

I am a postdoc who has drafted a research proposal for a project with two collaborators I met at a workshop last year, and am planning to apply for funding/a possible fellowship for the next year. I know the idea is novel after I spent the last 3 months composing a 15 page literature review in the area covering 200 papers. I've identified 2 fellowship schemes which our proposal would very much be suitable for. I do also hope to publish the literature review in case it helps our application.

One problem that vexes me greatly is that I sadly don't have an outstanding publication count: I do have a few publications each from my PhD and first postdoc (all of which are first and second author papers), but in this current postdoc sadly I've encountered a string of unfortunate circumstances for the last 4 years which has delayed completion of 2 potential first author papers. Circumstances have included building my own equipment for 2.5 years (without any help as technocians found the setup idea too complex), covid, co-workers/collaborators leaving, collaborators fighting with my boss, equipment malfunctions which delayed/cancelled experiments, admin issues.....the most recent being theft of a piece of equipment that we are now having trouble replacing, which has delayed the necessary final part of one of the papers for the last 10 months now with no direct resolution in sight.

My boss and I are implementing several strategies to circumnavigate the last issue such that the papers can still be published ( just came off maternity leave 3 months ago) but as one can imagine this means starting a couple of new investigations from scratch which of course delays completion the papers further. It is hereby unlikely I will have the papers submitted by the fellowship deadlines.

However I would like to apply for funding for the aforementioned project this year such that we can begin this project ASAP with less possibility that someone else might scoop the idea. Also the project offers high potential for lots of publications which of course would be very helpful in many ways.....

I would therefore please like some advice on trying to improve my profile amidst my publication gap due to the above circumstances. Note I do have a conference presentation and a few posters detailing my work during this postdoc - I just needed more data for publications which I've had to overcome the aforementioned difficulties to obtain, hereby contributing to the delays with completing them.

Sorry if this post sounds a bit whiny/like self wallowing. Believe me I'd give up sleep to work myself out of being in this situation if that was possible.

Thanks in advance for your time. Hope you all have a good week.

I reached out to a supervisor who's work I'm interested in about potentially supervising a PhD. this supervisor is really well known within his field. he expressed interest in supervising a PhD within a field related to but different to his own, he's done some work within this field but none of it has been published as of yet. this (niche) field happens to be what I did my MSc project in and subsequently worked as an RA on. he invited me to come visit in person next week, they're based in a different city so I will be travelling down there.

I've been reading around the proposed topic and his previous work. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for our meeting next week, specifically how to gauge what kind of supervisor he is and whether we would work together well. I've also been brushing up on the details of my past research project in case we discuss it. is there anything else I should be preparing?

Hello! Does anyone know how to get access to this journal? I can't get it through my uni but a current paper is about the impact of menopause and perimenopause when it comes to nutrition and psychological state. Everywhere I'm finding good references seems to be from this journal but I can't access it and can't afford to pay for access.

Has anyone else encountered suspicious issues with search results from Google Scholar, which almost seem like SEO/researchers somehow gaming the algorithm so they consistently end up in the first few results? I would like to flatter myself that I know my field relatively well, and who the key players are, but recently I’ve been getting some odd results with authors I have never heard of cropping up time and again.

Hi,

I've been applying for postgraduate programmes and using the same reference (my Academic tutor), however, they have gone on leave. I still need one more reference, Do I use my back-up?

My back-up is just a lecturer I spoke to a couple of times, it is also the module I received my highest grade in. She says she recognises me and she remembers our conversation on medieval ecology (It was a Chaucer module), do I still use her? or do I try and email my main reference and ask them if they could send over the reference they've used?

Also, would it be wrong to change the name of the University on the reference?

I'm going mad. Insane.

I submitted my ATAS application on May 13th (455***). As of today. it has been more than 75+ working days. My university's immigration team has escalated it twice. My programme's management team has escalated it once. I've sent numerous emails with generic responses back that it's taking longer than expected. If I don't get it by this week, I'll have to defer and an entire year is possibly ruined with no other plans. I'm gonna rip my hair out. I'd love to hear from people in the same boat as me. Any advice is appreciated. Will I even get the certificate at this point?

For more context, I'm an Indian. This is for a PhD in Quantum Computing, code is of Computer Science. Weirdly, I applied for an ATAS for a similar PhD program at a different university (Engineering code) and I received that within a month! [Won't be joining here]

Today is also apparently a public holiday.

I've lost all hope. Why is this happening?

I’m an early career researcher, and so a big part of my researching life at the moment is determining what areas of my field I am interested in working in for the foreseeable future. With so many possible options, it feels a bit overwhelming. While I know broadly what I find interesting, it’s difficult to narrow down what specific topics to research further within those wider interests.

All of this got me thinking about areas that I won’t be able to cover in my career, no matter how interested I am in them. I can’t research everything, and I am curious about other researchers and whether they have a “white whale” topic that you have never been able to cover despite your interest in it. Whether that be a lack of resources, lack of time/too many things to do in other areas, or no way to crack into the field. Thank you for anyone to sharing, and it might make me feel a little less concerned about a limitless number of options available to me and only a limited amount of time to research them!

Hello everyone! I was not expecting to need an ATAS for my MRes, since it's a taught degree. I got my offer letter the 30th of August, and I applied for ATAS today the 31, however I am worried it might not be approved on time before my course starts. The official starting date is September 28th, however I was told I could delay it until October 6th due to being international. Even then, however, I am told ATAS takes about a month minimum to be accepted, and then I would also need to apply for a student visa.

I guess I am wondering whether ATAS certificates can be granted earlier? Given it is a taught degree, maybe they don't have the same level of requirements as a PhD?

I also got an offer for an MSc and that one doesn't require ATAS, so if I don't hear anything by mid sept, would it be smarter to take that course instead?

I am an English postdoc in North America in a biomedical field.

I have a Lecturer offer from a top 5 UK uni in the HCOL city in the SE, and separately have major external funding I can use to run my group for a good while in the UK.

I also have an offer from a "justabout" top 50 USA university in a major US city that is expensive but still cheaper than SE UK, with a large startup and current federal grant together equivalent to the UK external funding.

The UK jobs wins in terms of location, student quality, prestige, colleagues etc

US probably wins out in terms of long term funding opportunities.

What I get stuck on is that US position pays literally twice as much the UK job! And in a cheaper place to live. I cannot wrap my head round the fact I seem to have hit the jackpot with UK job and funding, but salary range is broadly less than my current US postdoc salary.

I REALLY want to make the return to UK work, because its a great opportunity in a great city. But all my millennial friends (who make more in the said HCOL city than a lecturer does) complain about cost of living, how expensive housing and groceries have got since I left UK before covid, how buying a house is impossible without bank of mum and dad. I have saved a good amount of money earning better as postdoc overseas, but I don't have family help to buy or inherit a house, and even with hefty deposit the lecturer salary doesn't seem to be enough for a mortgage. The historic advantages of UK pensions and healthcare also seem not to apply any more, given problems with NHS and erosion of defined benefit scheme.

(2) Yet I look at the unis in the HCOL of living area and they are full of milennial lecturers from seemingly diverse backgrounds making it work. Can people please share their success stories living on lecturer pay in the SE?

(1) Will UK unis increase salary offer (even within grade) if you present counter offer from US job paying significantly higher? Has this worked successfully for anyone?

Hello everyone. I am an international student looking to start my PHD in UK, and preferably for a fully funded opportunity. I aim to send our emails by the 1st week of September, is that alright?

and within this email, are we supposed to only email our draft research proposal or also our academic transcripts etc? Thank you so much