Academic awarded £5000 grant for project on Early Career Researchers

A member of the GSD teaching faculty has been awarded £5000 by the Research England Enhancing Research Culture Fund to develop a project exploring how Early Career Researchers (ECRs) navigate the transitional space of academia, focusing on the liminality of academic identities.

Dr Ayten Alibaba, a Teaching Fellow who previously held the role as our Director of Student Experience for the GSD postgraduate programme, will be leading the project. Titled ‘Transitional Space of Academia: Liminal Identities of Early career researchers’, this creative study aims to empower ECRs to articulate their experiences, challenge systemic barriers, and reimagine academia as a more equitable and inclusive space through a series of participatory workshops that will start in February 2026.

Early career researchers from all academic disciplines – including those on fixed-term, part-time, or teaching-focused contracts – will be invited to reflect on their journeys of becoming an academic and develop sense of belonging after completion of their PhD.

Dr Alibaba commented:

“Academia is a dynamic environment marked by contested norms, uneven power dynamics, and structural inequalities that profoundly influence how early career researchers develop their sense of belonging and negotiate and embody their researcher identities. With this project we would like to contribute to shaping a healthier, more inclusive research culture by amplifying ECR voices.”

If you are an early-career researcher interested in taking part in the study, you can register your interest here. For further queries, please contact ECRtransitions@warwick.ac.uk.