Early Career and Postgraduate Researchers Conference 2025 – post-event summary

IRC ECR and PGR Engaged Scholarship Conference –  Wednesday 8 – Thursday 9 January 2025, Alliance Manchester Business School

Dr Lauren Tuckerman organised and led a two day conference which brought together 30 Early Career and Postgraduate Researchers working in the area of Innovation and Research. The aim of the conference was to inspire and develop the next generation of engaged scholars by helping them to understand how to showcase the impact of their research and provide actionable insights to the R&I ecosystem.

Across the two days, attendees networked with each other, built new connections, learnt from the senior engaged academics, discovered more about publishing and various journals, and heard from research councils on how to do engaged research and the opportunities on offer at UKRI, ESRC and Innovate UK.

Five attendees pitched their research to a review panel to win one of two prizes. It was difficult for us to only select two winners, but we are delighted to announce that Dr Efe Imiren and Dr Xin Deng were our prize winners this year!

Dr Efe Imiren’s research looks at the emergence of AI and the challenges women entrepreneurs face in terms of establishing legitimacy, acceptance and visibility in this field. Efe won our Editorial Prize which means she will work closely with  Dr Deema Refai and the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Dr Xin Deng’s research investigates the nuanced interplay between public procurement and the innovation search strategies of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Xin will work with the IRC Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manger, Sachin Anand, to explore how best to communicate the outputs and actionable insights from her project.

We look forward to learning more about their projects and seeing how they develop over the next few months!

Here are some of our key takeaways from the event:

Day one 

Session: Designing Research for Impact – Hannah Clark, Impact Facilitator, University of Manchester

Think about the following questions when designing your research proposal:

• Who does the research benefit?
• How might stakeholders use it?
• What are the pathways to engagement?
• How will you evidence eventual impact?

Session: Experience of Engaged Scholarship – Professor Richard Kingston, University of Manchester

Richard shared his top tip for maximum impact from your research – “understand what non-academic audience’s problems are and communicate your research based on this.”

Day two

Session: Value of Being Curious – Professor Alice Owen and Dr Lauren Tuckerman

Tips for generating impact from your research:

1. Start at the other person’s position
2. Assume you have a shared goal – work out what it is and go from there
3. Be determined as well as flexible and adaptable in your approach

Keep a look out for further blog content on our website exploring some of these topics further!