Incoming ICAT Fellows were welcomed to the ICAT Programme at an Induction Event in July 2021. The annual Induction Event is an opportunity to introduce our new Fellows, support them to analyse their clinical and research skills, and encourage them to share their research interests and career aspirations. Due to the pandemic we restructured the event to host some fellows in person by holding the event in a large lecture theatre with social distancing, mandatory mask-wearing and vaccination against COVID-19, and some fellows and speakers joined us online by videoconference. The glorious weather allowed us to chat together outside during the breaks.
The first day of workshops included an overview of the ICAT PhD proposal development process, how to develop a research concept and design a research project, advice on building a PhD supervisory team, working with your academic mentor and how to respond to feedback on your PhD proposal. On the second day of the event the new ICAT Fellows gave short introductions to their clinical and research interests and their project ideas, receiving some advice from an ICAT alumnus and an ICAT supervisor. Professor Michael O’Reilly (RCSI) joined us remotely to speak about his academic career, focusing on the opportunities to apply for early stage career fellowships, and we finished with a discussion and Q&A with the new fellows. The fellows are now embarking upon their first (pre-PhD) year in ICAT, during which they will develop their PhD project plans with input from their academic mentors and supervisory team.
