The ECR competitors
Earlier this month, the Unitec ECR forum and Taupapa Rangahau held it’s third 3-minute Research Spiel competition and for the first time invited Emerging Researchers. At the event, researchers shared their work with a focus on Making an Impact! There were eight competitors from a range of schools across Unitec. These wonderful speakers included Laura Harvey, Kate Harder and Chloe McMenamin and from Environmental and Animal Sciences; Taya White Kaitiaki Taiao from the Maia Māori Centre, Dr Sameh Shamout from Architecture, Peeti Lamwilai from Creative Industries, Zhi Chen from Social Practice, and Sharon Sitters from Healthcare.
The overall award winner was Sameh Shamout speaking about his poetry and architecture in his Window of Palestine, the Early Career winner was Tanya White speaking about Toitū te Whenua: Sustaining the Wāhi Tapu of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae. The Emerging Career researcher was too close to pick, so it was split between Chloe McMenamin talking about the environmental effect of parasite treatment on crickets as a wētā proxy, and Peeti Lamwilai who spoke about his project Puna Kōrero.
The judges were Gregor Steinhorn from Tāūpapa Rangahau, Daisy Bentley-Grey from Pacific Success and Dr Kristie Cameron , who chose winners whose talks conveyed considerable impact to a range of industries and communities. The judges were impressed by the quality of the research and the passion of the researchers. Martin Carroll, our Deputy Chief Executive Academic, awarded the prizes.
Overall winner Sameh Shamout
Early Career winner Tanya White
Winner of Emerging ECRs, Peeti Lamwilai and Chloe McMenamin
ECRs are valuable assets to Unitec with comprehensive support available through Tāūpapa Ranguhau including contestable funding, research support, writing retreats and more. The latest round of ECR funding is currently open for Expressions of Interest and the dates for the latest writing retreat have been announced (please email Brenda Massey Tāūpapa Ranguhau; bmassey@unitec.ac.nz for up-to-date information).
If you think that you are an ECR please email , Dr Kristie Cameron (kcameron@unitec.ac.nz) to be added to the list to receive ECR notices and information.
Early Career Researcher eligibility
An ECR at Unitec lies between ‘emerging/beginner’ and ‘senior/advanced’. An ECR is within 10 years (prior to the closing date for full applications for ECR funding) of becoming an ‘independent’ researcher, which is defined as one or both of the following, whichever comes first:
A researcher who has been awarded a PhD or a professional doctorate with a significant research component.
- A researcher who has been the primary author of an independently investigated (i.e. unsupervised), disseminated quality assured research output. This criterion excludes conference presentations and typically also excludes very short written outputs.
- Time taken for parental leave is not counted as part of the 10-year window (i.e. one year of parental leave would extend the eligibility period to 11 years since achieving criterion 1 or 2). Note that other forms of extended leave may be considered by negotiation with Tūāpapa Rangahau.
Emerging Career Researcher eligibility
- Someone at the beginning of their research career with a clear development plan and working in a strongly supportive research environment and are no more than six years from attaining a postgraduate degree. Congratulations to all our ECR Research Spiel competitors and winners!
Dr Kristie Cameron, Chair of the Unitec ECR forum & Associate Professor in EAS
Congratulations to all the talented Researchers 🙂