Panel session networking
There were more questions in the app than we could cover during the panel session. We’ve since asked our panel members to answer the remaining ones — you can discover their answers here:
What funding opportunities are there for network events? (for example if your university doesn’t cover conference fees)
- Most universities have a fund that you can apply for. Your supervisors will most likely know more about this (e.g. Leiden University Fund, Groninger Universiteitsfonds). In addition, there are external mobility grant funding such as the biennial KNAW Van der Gaag Beurs (for Dutch early-career researchers), and Erasmus+. Some universities actively recruit through mobility grants. Vacancies for these are often posted on platforms such as Academic Transfer.
- A promising and accessible way to secure funding to support teaching and training (including research!): https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/nl/opportunities/individuals/training-opportunities-for-staff/higher-education-staff-training
- In Belgium, the FWO offers several grants for both short- and long-term research visits abroad, including support for conference attendance, short visits (up to about a week), and longer research stays. More information can be found here: fwo.be/en/support-programmes/international-mobility/
What are your experiences with using social media for networking? I see some people are very active but most colleagues don’t use it a lot?
- Personally I am really active on LinkedIn, mainly to connect also with practitioners. It gave me also some connections with researchers, or I follow influencing researchers to receive updates on their latest work.
- Alternatively, ResearchGate is a good way to stay updated about the latest developments as well.
- In the past, I used to follow many researchers whose work I found interesting on Twitter. More recently, I’ve been trying to do the same on Bluesky. While fewer researchers are active there at the moment, some do share their work, and it offers a relatively accessible and approachable way to connect with others, for example by responding to posts or reaching out directly. LinkedIn could also be used for this purpose, although I personally tend to connect there only with people, I’ve already had direct contact with.