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Network for Early Career Essex Researchers

Newcomers. Network for early career Essex researchers

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About Newcomers

Research Week

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Support for Researchers

For PGRs

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What is Newcomers?

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Our Network for Early Career Essex Researchers (Newcomers) provides support to researchers in the early stages of their careers. This includes newly-appointed lecturers, post-docs, research fellows, PhD students, and anyone else who considers themselves to be early in their research careers.

Newcomers creates a forum that brings together researchers interested in the different aspects of the research lifecycle, and aims to stimulate collaboration and opportunities for shared learning and interdisciplinary work.

The network also provides training and resources from the Library & Cultural Services, the Research and Enterprise Office, and UK Data Archive that support researchers across the research lifecycle.

Newcomers aims to bring together a wide range of workshops that foster professional development using informal, stimulating, and highly participative sessions that generate new ideas and practical approaches to data management, publishing research results as well as gaining funding for your research.

The flagship Newcomers event is the annual Newcomers Research Week, which is held each January. If you are interested in attending, sign up to the Newcomers mailing list to hear when booking is live. If you are interested in running a session, contact the team.

Get involved

Sign up to the Newcomers mailing list

Sign up to the Newcomers Mailing List to stay up to date with upcoming events and workshops. Once you are a member you are able to email the list to discuss research and opportunities for collaboration – a great way to get in touch with other Early Career Researchers!

Contact the Team

If you are an early career researcher, we want to hear about the challenges you face and what you need in terms of future workshops. Please also contact us if you have any question in relation to Newcomers.

Meet the Newcomers team

Hannah Crago

I am the Open Research Development Librarian within Library and Cultural Services at the University of Essex. My role includes supporting staff and students in topics such as open research, online research profiles, increasing research visibility, publishing, and copyright. I have been working within the Research Support team since September 2019, and Newcomers is a key part of my role. Along with helping to organise Newcomers Research Week and workshops across the year, I also analyse the feedback we receive, and deliver a variety of the sessions. Newcomers is an aspect of my role that I really enjoy, as engaging early career researchers in topics that will be helpful for them throughout their careers is very rewarding. 


Thomas O'Toole-Mills

I am the Research Services Coordinator within Library and Cultural Services at the University of Essex. My role involves providing training and support to staff and students in topics such as open research, online research profiles, increasing research visibility, publishing, and copyright. I have been working in the Research Support team since March 2022, and providing training and support through Newcomers is part of my role. Along with helping to organise Newcomers Research Week and Library training events across the year, I also oversee the running of the Essex Student Journal. I find supporting PGRs and Early Career Researchers to be important and fulfilling, not just for the individual journeys I get to be a part of, but also because of the opportunity to help improve research culture through the next generation of researchers.


Maureen Haaker

I am the Senior Research Data Officer for Qualitative Data at the UK Data Service . The UK Data Service is the principal repository for social science, economic and population data in the UK, and provides guidance and training on the collection, preservation and dissemination of research data. As part of my role, I work on a range of processes surrounding data deposit, including advising in research data management, preserving and curating research data, and re-using archived data. For Newcomers Research Week, we offer sessions on research data management, reproducibility, and secondary analysis, which both introduce the UK Data Service as a key resource for researchers at every stage of their careers, as well as critically discuss changes in policy and strategies that affect how research is done. Working with the Newcomers team has given us the opportunity to work with a wide range of disciplines and stages of career and brings new perspectives to the skills development training we offer.

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Except where otherwise noted, this work by University of Essex Library and Cultural Services is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.