[Board] [Marketing] Fwd: Request for funding for Early Career Researcher support for GISRUK 2023

Nick Bearman nick at geospatialtrainingsolutions.co.uk
Thu Mar 23 03:24:17 PDT 2023


Hi Adam, everyone,

Thanks for the note about the agenda - I have spotted it now. I'm still 
working out the processes, so apologies if I missed checking something 
before sending the email.

I will be the first to admit the academic sector is not perfect - far 
from it. (If you know of a perfect working environment, let me know!). 
The current series of UCU strikes in the UK academic sector being a 
prime example of this. In fact, I have left academia and am now working 
as a freelance consultant. (I will happily share my experiences with 
anyone who is interested!)

As I am sure you have seen, we use the term ECR to define as anyone in a 
precarious employment position: "masters students, PhD students or 
post-docs (prior to getting a permanent lectureship position, i.e. 
tenure)". Approx 15 years ago we used the term "Young Researchers" 
instead, but this was quite rightly replaced with ECRs, as the term 
"young" discriminates against those who have had a career break, or who 
have joined academia later in their careers.

I'd happily replace ECR with "ECRs / precarious research workers" or 
even "precarious research workers" if you wish.

Clearly we need to and want to restrict the support to those not in 
permanent employment, as a significant proportion/all of those people 
are privileged (depending how you define privileged) so if you have some 
alternative wording, please do suggest this!

I'm not sure whether I will be able to make it to the board meeting or 
not, but if I can I will.

Best wishes,
Nick.

On 22/03/2023 20:09, Adam Steer wrote:
> Hi Nick, all
>
> This is on the agenda for the next board meeting (28/3).
>
> I need to be very blunt about my own opinion on this: I've just spent 
> 2.5 years seeing and experiencing "ECR" used as a tool to gaslight and 
> punch down on precarious research workers. I'm personally happy if I 
> never hear or see the term again, because it's just another way to 
> enshrine existing privilege in the academic system and extend the 
> current broken philosophy of how academia works.
>
> Remove the EC part and things look much better ;)
>
> Cheers
>
> Adam
>
> --
> https://iamadamsteer.com
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2023, 02:52 Nick Bearman 
> <nick at geospatialtrainingsolutions.co.uk> wrote:
>
>     Hello Board and Marketing,
>
>     How are we progressing with a decision on this?
>
>     The GISRUK conference is soon (18th - 23rd April 2023) so I would
>     like
>     to confirm whether you have ok'd the funding.
>
>      From the comments I've heard, it's sounding positive. GISRUK are
>     also
>     keen to show OSGeo's support, and have added the logo to their
>     website
>     already! https://gisruk.org/gisruk-2023/
>
>     If you need any more information, please ask me.
>
>     Best wishes,
>     Nick.
>
>     On 27/02/2023 10:04, Astrid Emde (OSGeo) wrote:
>     > Hello board,
>     >
>     > I hope you are all fine.
>     >
>     > I forward this mail from Nick Bearman to the board.
>     >
>     > The GISRUK event is already listed at
>     https://www.osgeo.org/events/21631/
>     > Marketing committee will support with material.
>     >
>     > For the budget request we thought to ask the board to decide
>     about the
>     > financial support.
>     >
>     > I think Nicks goal to develop greater links between OSGeo:UK and
>     the
>     > academic community in the UK is great. So I would support the
>     support
>     > for the event.
>     >
>     > See you Astrid
>     >
>     > -------- Originalnachricht --------
>     > Betreff: [Marketing] Request for funding for Early Career
>     Researcher
>     > support for GISRUK 2023
>     > Datum: 27.01.2023 13:12
>     > Von: Nick Bearman <nick at geospatialtrainingsolutions.co.uk>
>     > An: Marketing <marketing at lists.osgeo.org>
>     >
>     > Hello,
>     >
>     > As Chair of OSGeo:UK, I am trying to develop greater links between
>     > OSGeo:UK and the academic community in the UK. I organised a very
>     > successful FOSS4G:UK Local 2022
>     > (https://uk.osgeo.org/foss4guk2022local/) with approximately 300
>     > attendees across the UK. We managed some engagement with the UK GIS
>     > academic community (two venues out of nine being hosting by
>     > universities and 16 respondents out of the 108 who responded to the
>     > survey identifying as students or academics). However, I think
>     we can
>     > do more with the academic community in the UK, and I think they
>     could
>     > be a great source of people and contributions to OSGeo (global and
>     > local) and open source projects more generally.
>     >
>     > The annual Geographical Information Science Research UK (GISRUK)
>     > conference is happening in Glasgow, UK on 18th - 23rd April 2023
>     > (https://gisruk.org/gisruk-2023/) and strongly supports ECRs (Early
>     > Career Researchers). ECRs are typically masters students, PhD
>     students
>     > or post-docs (prior to getting a permanent lectureship position,
>     i.e.
>     > tenure). GISRUK run a series of workshops and sessions for ECRs
>     and I
>     > would like OSGeo to sponsor one or more of these. Typically GISRUK
>     > attracts around 100-150 participants, and usually ~50 of these
>     are ECRs.
>     >
>     > I am asking for US$750 (~GBP£606) to support this. I would
>     suggest we
>     > use this to sponsor an ECR evening session (e.g. pizza or similar).
>     > This usually takes place at the beginning of the conference,  to
>     > facilitate their networking and integration into the wider
>     conference.
>     > Any surplus could also be used to support ECR scholarships, which
>     > would pay for the registration fee for any ECRs who do not have
>     > funding from their university to attend the conference.
>     >
>     > I appreciate I am not being very specific yet, but I think there is
>     > scope for some negotiation with the GISRUK organisers. Attached is
>     > their 'standard' information for sponsors, but I think we could
>     > probably get a stand, session sponsorship and maybe some
>     scholarships
>     > with the $750.
>     >
>     > In terms of support from the marketing committee, I already have a
>     > role up banner from the code-sprint (thanks Astrid!) and a few left
>     > over stickers and print outs from FOSS4G & FOSS4G:UK. I think some
>     > OSGeo:UK stickers would be good (OSGeo:UK can pay for those) and
>     I am
>     > open to suggestions as to what else might be good. I suspect
>     stickers
>     > would go down well with this audience.
>     >
>     > For full openness, I am on the GISRUK National Steering Committee,
>     > with responsibility for ECRs (Business). We also have a ECR
>     (Academic)
>     > rep, James Haworth. I am also Treasurer of the RGS-IBG GISc
>     Research
>     > Group, who are contributing to the scholarships as well.
>     >
>     > I hope this covers my request in enough detail. If you have any
>     > questions, please do ask!
>     >
>     > Best wishes,
>     > Nick.
>     >
>     >
>     > _______________________________________________
>     > Marketing mailing list
>     > Marketing at lists.osgeo.org
>     > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
>
>     -- 
>     Nick Bearman
>     +44 (0)7717745715
>     nick at geospatialtrainingsolutions.co.uk
>
>     Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me
>     outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure
>     to respond outside of your own working pattern.
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Marketing mailing list
>     Marketing at lists.osgeo.org
>     https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
>
-- 
Nick Bearman
+44 (0)7717745715
nick at geospatialtrainingsolutions.co.uk

Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20230323/5a258d76/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the Board mailing list