Kick Off meeting, Dublin, Ireland 

University College Dublin, Ireland organised the RootEd Kick Off Meeting on 13th-15th November 2023,  in Museum of Literature Ireland (13th-14th November) and the University College Dublin campus on 15th November.

The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for RootEd members to meet in person, recieve an overview of the programme and discuss any questions and find improvements to research questions. 

Meeting summary 

The meeting opened with an introduction by each person in attendance. The Project Coordinator, Dr Saoirse Tracy, then summarised the scientific workplan and the complementarity of the workpackages, including the planned deliverables and milestones. She concluded with a flash talk on “Things I wish I knew when starting my PhD journey”, providing useful insights to the students from a mentors perspective.

Professor Fiona Doohan presented the training programme and provided an introduction to the Personal Career Development Plan, the supervision structure (Research Study Panel) and the training requirements of the programme, including network and local training.

Patricia Tutty focused on the rules of the Marie Curie programme. The first afternoon of the meeting wrapped up with a Supervisory Board meeting for the beneficiaries present and the first meeting of the Doctoral Candidate Sub Committee, which ran concurrently. 

The second day of the meeting started with a session by Dr Michael Pound, University of Nottingham focussing on research data. This was followed by a masterclass on Scientific Publication, from the perspective of three Consortium members Prof. Mathieu Javaux, Université Catholique Louvain, Dr Guillaume Lobet, FZJ and Prof. Maarja Opik, University of Tartu. The remainder of the morning session was given over to the presentations by eight of the Doctoral Candidates and a discussion on the synergies between the projects. Following lunch, a fireside chat on innovation in research was delivered by Prof. Jimmy Burke, Head of Research at Origin Enterprises, Prof. Fiona Doohan, CEO at Crop Biome and Dr Stacey Kelly, Intellectual Property expert from UCD Nova. The session provided an excellent introduction to early stage researchers on the intersection of research and innovation and gave some context the process of innovating research. The afternoon closed out with a talk by a communications expert from UCD, Dr Elizabeth Bruton on how to best utilise social media to enhance research impact.

The meeting concluded on Wednesday, when the doctoral researchers visited the UCD campus. The morning began with a tour of the CT Scanner and Greenhouses in Rosemount (the UCD horticultural space). The students were then taken to the UCD Village where there were two final classroom based talks. The first was delivered by one of the UCD Research Integrity champions, Dr Tancredi Caruso. The doctoral candidates were informed of the principles of integrity in research, examples of good practise and they were advised to inform themselves of the research integrity supports in their home institutions.  The second talk was delivered by a data expert from UCD Library, Dr Jenny O’Neill, providing specific training for the Doctoral Candidates on how to prepare a data management plan for their individual projects, which will sit within the overall data management plan for the Consortium.

Social activities

Part of the meeting was dedicated to social and networking activities for the project participants.  As this was the first opportunity for an in-person meeting, the Consortium viewed this as an important component of the event.

Consortium meal

On the first evening of the meeting, all participants met for an informal dinner at The Commons Restaurant, MOLI. This was a great opportunity for the networking amongst  Consortium colleagues.

Doctoral Candidate Team building exercise

Following the conclusion of the talks on Wednesday, the Doctoral Candidates travelled to Carlingford Adventure Centre in Co. Louth for an afternoon team building activity, The Crystal Maze. The group participated in a series of timed, interactive challenges, the aim of which was to promote creativity, cooperation and building a sense of team spirit within the group. Afterwards, the group returned to Dublin city centre, where they met for dinner with a postdoctoral fellow from University College Dublin, Dr Eric Pereria. Eric is a former Marie Curie doctoral fellow and provided insights and to the group of his experiences of PhD life and advice on the direction of their postdoctoral careers.