Staff at the Lancaster Environment Centre have long endorsed the idea of a support network for early career staff.

Although there are networks available within (and outside) the university, the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) has such a unique mix of staff from different disciplines that setting up something specific for our staff would be far more effective.

To that end the LEC ECR Network was established in 2018, to provide this service for all staff within LEC that are not under a permanent contract; including Postdoctoral Research Associates, Early Career Research Fellows, Research and Teaching Assistants, Project Technicians, Knowledge Exchange or Engagement Fellows and those in other relevant positions.

In terms of what support we provide, we help our early career staff with:

• Career mentoring scheme
• Career prospects outside academia
• Funding applications
• Support for supervising students
• Pre-submission manuscript reviewing
• Publicising research outputs and successes

The Network also provides a forum through which we engage with the wider research structures of the Department, Faculty and Lancaster University Research Staff Association (RSA).