June will see the launch of the first set of resources from Prosper, The Academy’s new career development approach aimed at preparing postdocs for the wide range of careers available to them, both within and beyond academia.
Prosper gives postdocs the chance to expand how they view themselves and the opportunities available to them. The project’s ultimate goal is to open up the huge talent pool that exists within the postdoc community, to the benefit of postdocs themselves, Principal Investigators and employers and is of particular relevance now more than ever.
Built around three pillars of co-creation, democratisation of access and recognising the role of PIs in postdoc development, Prosper is being developed at the University of Liverpool before being rolled out in stages to its partner institutions, the University of Manchester and Lancaster University, followed by the N8 partnership, ultimately opening up access to universities across the UK in 2023.
Prosper’s first set of resources will launch as part of Making an Impact 2020. The Prosper team will be running a session showcasing the prototype portal on Friday, 19 June. Co-creation and iterative evaluation are at the heart of the project and this initial set of resources has been drawn from Prosper’s early engagement with postdocs themselves, PIs and employer partners. This session represents an early opportunity for colleagues to provide feedback and shape the project’s development going forward. The Prosper team will continue to work collaboratively with postdocs, PIs and employers to develop and expand Prosper’s offering, ultimately creating a model that empowers postdocs to succeed in a broad range of careers.
Before the prototype portal launch in June, University of Liverpool postdocs have an early opportunity to inform Prosper’s development and provision by completing a short survey on Postdoc Career Development Attitudes, Skills and Practices. The survey opens on Tuesday, 26 May, with a link to be sent directly to all postdocs.
A further Making an Impact session, More than a job, gives researchers the chance to hear from former postdocs who’ve moved to careers beyond academia, with the opportunity to pose direct questions to the panel. Through stories and discussion, this session gives participants the opportunity to understand how the skills, attributes and mindsets they develop as a postdoc can open up a wide variety of career pathways.
For more information about Prosper, visit the project webpages, get in touch with the team via email and follow us on Twitter.