Dementia Researcher Blogs

Anna Marie Rosická - 5 things I wish I knew before starting my PhD

Anna Marie Rosická narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
The past 18 months have been adventurous for Anna Marie. From moving to a different country on her own, through the infamous “I-have-no-idea-what-I-am–doing” phase, to gradually becoming settled in her new researcher life with all its perks and peculiarities. Yes, you read that right – it has been something over a year since she started her research PhD.
Anna Marie, like most who started a PhD knew it would be a learning experience. But there are also quite a few tricks of the trade she wishes someone had mentioned before she had started, to avoid learning the hard way! In this blog Anna Marie provides a list of such learnings. hopefully they will be helpful to someone else out there – whether you are just starting your own PhD journey or just need to feel less alone with the PhD storms you have already weathered!
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-5-things-i-wish-i-knew-before-starting-my-phd/
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Anna Marie Rosická is a PhD Student at Trinity College Dublin. Anna received a master’s degree in psychology from the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and gained industry experience working as a user experience researcher in IT. Now she studies the effects of ageing and modifiable risk factors on brain health, using gamified cognitive assessments and large-scale data from the smartphone app Neureka.
Enjoy listening and reading our blogs? We're always on the look out for new contributors, drop us a line and share your own research and careers advice dementiaresearcher@nihr.ac.uk
This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Dr Sam Moxon - How to Navigate a Job Switch

Dr Sam Moxon, narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Sam started a new job this month. A new job that meant he left a place he had been at for 6 years, moved to a new city and ventured out into a totally new workplace. It’s quite a lot of change all at once but but did a great job of navigating it. With the challenge of short-term contracts, its easy to become desensitised to moving house in academia. You basically do it every year! But it got Sam thinking job changes and how best to navigate them. It can be quite a stressful experience and he talks about how you can make transition easier. So without further delay… here are Sam's top 5 tips for navigating a job switch:
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-how-to-navigate-a-job-switch/
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Dr Sam Moxon is a biomaterials scientist at the University of Manchester. His expertise falls on the interface between biology and engineering. His PhD focussed on regenerative medicine and he now works on trying to develop 3D bioprinting techniques with human stem cells, so that we better understand and treat degenerative diseases. Outside of the lab he hikes through the Lake District and is an expert on all things Disney.
Enjoy listening and reading our blogs? We're always on the look out for new contributors, drop us a line and share your own research and careers advice dementiaresearcher@nihr.ac.uk
This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Dr Gaia Brezzo - To cross or not to cross the picket line: striking as an ECR.

Dr Gaia Brezzo narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Good researchers evaluate data from every angle. They explore cause and effect and untangle the tricky web that interconnects everyday phenomena. So it is easy to understand why Gaia has found it difficult to decide where she stands when it comes to the decision around if she should or shouldn't participate in the industrial action voted on by University & College Union members in a dispute with Universities over pensions, pay and conditions. In this blog Gaia sets out the issues and shares her thoughts on the challenges, the points of dispute and how to respond. 
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-to-cross-or-not-to-cross-the-picket-line-striking-as-an-ecr/
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Dr Gaia Brezzo is a Research Fellow based within the UK Dementia Research Institute at The University of Edinburgh. Gaia's research focuses on understanding how immune alterations triggered by stroke shape chronic maladaptive neuroimmune responses that lead to post-stroke cognitive decline and vascular dementia. Raised in Italy, Gaia came to the UK to complete her undergraduate degree, and thankfully, stuck around. Gaia writes about her work and career challenges, when not biking her way up and down hills in Edinburgh. Follow Gaia on Twitter: @Gaia_Brezzo
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Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk
This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Dr Connor Richardson - Am I in “Career Drift Mode?”

Dr Connor Richardson narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Career drift can happen when you proceed on your professional career course with no plan, or when a career strategy goes awry due to conditions beyond your control (like a pandemic.... or in academia... a lack of funding maybe?). It is easy to become reactive and stop being proactive career moves, taking the next job because it was offered (without building toward long-term goals) and now you feel stuck. Well, that's kind of how Connor felt in 2022, coming out of the pandemic, but could 2023 be a new year? Was that period of drift actually useful, and was 2022 all bad? Questions he answers in this blog.
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-am-i-in-career-drift-mode/
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Dr Connor Richardson is a Neuro-epidemiology Research Associate in the Newcastle University Population Health Sciences Institute. Connor is the research statistician for the Cognitive Function and Ageing studies (CFAS) multi-centre population cohort. His research interest lies in using advanced statistical modelling and machine learning to measure dementia risk. Connor blogs about his research, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and sometimes his Pomapoo’s.
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Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk
This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Dr Anna Volkmer - Writing a paper with lots of co-authors

Dr Anna Volkmer, narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Success in academia if often measured in papers. And the best papers seem to be those with about a million authors on them. Writing anything down on paper seems daunting enough without having to share it with a bunch of others who are going to give their judgement (using the edit and comment function on word – which makes everything a horrifying red). And this is all before you even submit anything to the dreaded journal reviewers. So, how does one manage this as a lowly ECR? Over the years Anna has developed a couple of tricks that she finds useful - and in this blog she shares them (it would be great to hear yours too - add them to the comments).
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-writing-a-paper-with-lots-of-co-authors/
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Dr Anna Volkmer is a Speech and Language Therapist and researcher in Language and Cognition, Department of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London. Anna is researching Speech and language therapy interventions in language led dementia and was once voted scariest speech and language therapist (even her children agree).
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If you would like to write your own blog drop us a line, we're always on the look out for new contributors to write about their research, careers + more dementiaresearcher@ucl.ac.uk
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This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Dr Clarissa Giebel - Public Involvement & Engagement in Research

Dr Clarissa Giebel narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
You will have come across the term PPIE, or Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement. It is a given that we involve people affected by a condition, so for us, dementia, in our research design and development, conduct, and dissemination. And that is not restricted to dementia of course. PPIE needs to be embedded in any health and social care research, because how else do we know that we as researchers really address the issues that are most important, and urgent, to those with lived experience? In this blog Clarissa takes us through her advise for great PPIE.
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-public-involvement-engagement-in-research/
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Dr Clarissa Giebel is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool and NIHR ARC North West Coast. Clarissa has been working in dementia care research for over 10 years focusing her research on helping people with dementia to live at home independently and well for longer, addressing inequalities that people with dementia and carers can face. Outside of her day work, Clarissa has also organised a local dementia network - the Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum, and has recently started her own podcast called the Ageing Scientist.
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If you would like to write your own blog drop us a line, we're always on the look out for new contributors to write about their research, careers + more dementiaresearcher@nihr.ac.uk
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This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Dr Aida Suárez-Gonzalez - Building positive narratives about dementia

Dr Aida Suárez-Gonzalez narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Aida has just been awarded UCL Global Engagement Funds (GEF) for a project to co-produce positive narratives about dementia. The GEF are an exciting seed funding scheme for all sorts of global engagement ideas. In Aida's project, she plans to partne with collaborators at Princeton University and the University of South Carolina. The aim being to co-create an Oliver Sack’s style book about people with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and dementia with lewy bodies (DLB). And publish it - in this blog Aida shares her journey of selling the idea and applying for the UCL Global Engagement funds.
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-building-positive-narratives-about-dementia/
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Dr Aida Suarez-Gonzalez is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology at Queen Square. With many years clinical experience working in Spain, Aida now investigating non-pharmacological interventions, services and assistive technologies to support people living well with dementia.
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This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line dementiaresearcher@ucl.ac.uk 

Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali - Peer Reviewing Grant Applications

Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Kam was recently asked to peer review a grant by a major UK research funder. This was not something she had been asked to do before, and it made her realise the sheer number of tasks required of us in academia that we simply get zero training or guidance on. In this blog, Kamar pulls together her experience of grant peer reviewing and provides guidance that will hopefully be helpful to other new reviewers.
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-peer-reviewing-grant-applications/
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Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali is a Lecturer in Biomedical Science at Teesside University & Affiliate Researcher at Glasgow University. In addition to teaching, Kamar is exploring how neuroinflammation following traumatic brain injury contributes to the progression of neurodegenerative diseases that lead to dementia. Having first pursued a career as an NHS Psychologist, Kamar went back to University in Durham to look at rodent behavioural tasks to completed her PhD, and then worked as a regional Programme Manager for NC3Rs.
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Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk
This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.

Beth Eyre - Writing a fellowship application

Beth Eyre narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher.
Not only is this the year I will Beth be finishing her PhD training, but this was also the year she had a go at writing her first ever fellowship application. Writing your first applicatoin can be a hard slog (which is probably why so many people take a gap year between PhD and Fellowship and explore a ready-made postdoc position). Beth says she is very lucky, because she has extremely helpful supervisors to provide lots of advice along the way. So in this blog, Beth shares some of the ins and outs of the process. Because let’s be honest, there are many things within academia that we have no idea about until we actually have to do them – and fellowship applications certainly fall into that category!
Find the original text, and narration here on our website.
https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-writing-a-fellowship-application/
We're always on the look out for new contributors, if you would like to write and narrate your own blog - drop us a line to dementiaresearcher@nihr.ac.uk
Don't forget to also listen to our fortnightly podcast, just look for Dementia Researcher in your podcast app.
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Beth Eyre is a PhD Student at The University of Sheffield, researching Neurovascular and cognitive function in preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease. Beth has a background in psychology, where she gained her degree from the University of Leeds. Inside and outside the lab, Beth loves sharing her science and in her blogs she discusses her work, career and shares lessons she learns as she navigates life as an early career researcher.
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This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line dementiaresearcher@ucl.ac.uk