Postdoctoral Awards

WiSER Postdoctoral Researcher Award 2007

In October 2007 WiSER launched a call for a number of awards of up to €5,000 to encourage the career development of early stage researchers. Our research has shown that there is a significant drop in the number of women in academic SET between postdoctoral and lecturer level, and so this award was established to support female postdoctoral researchers to further their career in research. Specifically, the scheme was intended to provide a funding opportunity for those who do not usually have access to independent funds as they would typically have to apply through their PI.

The fund was designed to give female postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to:

• apply for grants in their own right
• choose specifically what measures are needed to advance their career.

The award could be used to support any research related activity (e.g. research visit, conference attendance, specialist course etc) which would help to advance the research potential and career of the candidate.

Three recipients were chosen and each received an award to further their research. The three awardees were:

Dr. Rachel McDonnell, Computer Science

Dr. Fiona Walsh, Clinical Microbiology

Dr. Bridget Kane, Computer Science