MREL policies
Developing future researchers
Our primary focus is the advancement of scientific research, and development of new methodologies for applied research in marine renewables. It is expected that all MREL members contribute in research, grant applications, and have responsibilies in education that I distribute.
Depending on the career stage of each lab members, I aim to hold seperate weekly/bi-weekly meetings where my goal is to mentor, and develop your own skills further. In general, the approach will differ based on the project, education, and research requirements. My aim is for you to develop further as researcher(s) and as a team. Supervision and mentoring is always individually customised for all lab members. As a team I aim to have regular monthly meetings, where all present their on-going and future research, engage in a variety of discussions with constructive feedback.
Depending on what type of researcher you are, there are different expectations:
- From PhD candidates I expect curiousity driven attitude, perseverance, problem solving, working to be an independent researcher, mentor MSc students, and support educational activities. As a supervisor I am responsible to assist you reach independency, while you adhere to ethical and good scientific practices.
- From Post Doctoral researchers, I expect that you have reached independency, you can contribute to novel methods, new research ideas, mentor MSc students, contribute in PhDs development, and support educational activities. As a mentor, I strive to offer suggestions to enhance your skills and advance your career to your next level.
Working as a team
Working in academia can be very lonely. In a PhD/Post Doc you may be working on your own for long stretches of time, with all the stress and failure(s) that go along with it until you succeed. In interdisciplinary research, people in the lab may not be using the same methods and tools, and not everybody will be working on directly related problems. Despite this, whenever possible the aim is to work together on research, share efforts on common problems, help each other learn and develop. Team work is important as it will provide you with a new perspective on research, and/or will also help you research productivity by collaborative publications, where you apply expertise in different fields.
Taking ownership and responsibility
My goal is to give you ownership of your research and work, whether that is for a collaborative research project, your PhD or postdoc research. This means that I do not want to micro-manage you by giving a step-by-step list of tasks to follow, but help you develop or deepen your capabilities to be an independent forward thinking researcher. I may not always have a detailed overview of what is happening across different scale of tasks at different projects, and I expect that you will keep me always updated on the finer details.
For tasks that you are responsible, I expect that unless I hear otherwise from you, you are progressing on these tasks so that we are on track to meet any deadlines we have agreed upon. When you need input from me or when you need me to do something to move a project forward, you need to be proactive and tell me, set up a meeting or raise it at our next scheduled meeting.
Giving feedback
Feedback should always be constructive and offer proposed mitigation, solutions, and alternatives. In our individual and team meetings, my aim is to give the floor to everyone to give feedback on things that you see with particular projects, or with our working relationship in general. While I aim for a smooth working amongst all of us, as in every professional environment frictions will occur, but we will always communicate to avoid any misunderstandings and reconcile. I will not hold critical feedback against you, I will not take it personally, and I will work with you to always fix and mitigate things.
Managing your workload
It can be difficult for me to judge whether you are overwhelmed with work or have so little to do that you are bored. In case, tell me as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to provide me with feedback on anything I could be doing better to help you manage your workload. What counts is not time spent working, but the results that you will have (project deliverables, research manuscripts, conferences, supervision of MSc's, educational support, etc). When you are asked to help out with something on a project, teaching and you are unsure what is wanted from you, reach out to me to clarify who is responsible for each task.
One-on-one (individual) & Lab meetings
We will usually have a fixed schedule for a regular one-on-one meeting (as much as possible). You are in control of the agenda for these meetings. If you are working on externally funded projects with hard deliverables and deadlines, this meeting will allow me to be updated by you on our progress in the project(s). In addition, you can contact me any time if you want to discuss something.
A monthly lab meeting is also something that I expect all to follow. In these meetings, the aim is to foster collaborations on research and technical skills, to advance everybody's expertise. As a result of the team based research in the lab, all members have access to several in-depth methodologies the lab has developed.