Lectureships: Ready, Set, Go!

Practical information

Audience: Postdocs and research staff at Queen’s University Belfast. Priority is given to individuals on AC2/AC3 grade contracts, e.g., Research Fellows and Senior Research Fellows. In the event of oversubscription, we will maintain a waiting list, and an additional session will be organised when sufficient numbers have been reached.
Date/Time: 15 January 2026 | 09:30 - 16:30
Duration: 1 day
Location: Seminar Room, First Floor, 63 University Road
Number of places: 20 - We anticipate high interest in this course and will keep a waiting list. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Organised by: Postdoctoral Development Centre (PDC) | Email: pdc@qub.ac.uk

Content

This full-day interactive course is designed to provide you with useful information to help you prepare for the next stage of your academic career. Is a lectureship the right thing for you? Can you make your academic career ambitions a reality? What is the application process like? What are the key skills recruiters are looking for in a lecturer? Where are the gaps in your CV? What can you do now to start filling in those missing areas?

The course will focus on the lectureship role (and applications) in the morning and developing participants' CVs in the afternoon.

Programme Objectives

By the end of the session participants will have:

Reflected on their current experience and how to articulate this in a lectureship application
Identified what institutions are looking for in a lectureship
Analysed senior CVs and identified gaps in their own CV
Provided peer feedback
A plan for next steps

Participants are required to bring a copy of their CV with them on the day of the course.

Registration

Priority on this course is given to research staff on grade AC2/AC3 contracts, e.g., Research Fellows/Senior Research Fellows and places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Registration is currently closed. Stay tuned for details.

Facilitator

Dr Lisa Douglas | PDC Officer

Lisa joined the PDC in August 2024 and oversees the development and delivery of researcher development opportunities, training, events and guidance, ensuring these initiatives meet the needs of the postdoctoral researcher community at QUB. She also actively engages with the postdoctoral community through one-on-one support and collaborates with and supports the PDC Representatives’ Network and Postdoc Society. She was previously a postdoc at QUB herself; working in the School of Pharmacy where her research focused on novel therapeutic approaches for chronic airways disease.

During her time as a postdoctoral researcher, Lisa benefited from numerous development opportunities organised by the PDC and more broadly at Queen’s. She therefore has first-hand experience of the advantages these opportunities offered and how they helped shape her career. Lisa is passionate about aiding other postdoctoral researchers in their personal and professional development and has a special interest in enhancing and supporting researcher wellbeing and contributing to a positive, welcoming and inclusive research culture at Queen’s.

Email Lisa

Facilitator

Jill Wright | Research Careers and Employability Officer, QUB

Jill is Research Careers and Employability Officer within the Research Culture team at Queen's University Belfast, as part of the Wellcome-funded Research Culture NI project. Her role involves preparing postdocs across both Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University for future career transitions through delivering a suite of training and development opportunities to enhance skills and helping postdocs explore alternate career paths outside of academia, supporting them with job applications and interview preparation. Her role also involves engaging with employers across NI who are employers of postdocs and those that are new to the conversation to promote the talent pool of postdocs that we have in Northern Ireland across our two universities.

Before joining the Research Culture team in June 2024, Jill worked in the private sector and brings with her extensive experience in early career development as well as running employability programmes in partnership with government bodies and local higher education institutions. Jill has established relationships with Queens and Ulster as a previous key graduate employer.

Email Jill

Feedback

Rating (out of 5): 4.5

Recommended by: 100%

Number of feedback provided: 13

Quote: “A very worthwhile course and time well spent. Karen was an excellent facilitator and I gained lots of extremely useful information. I feel more confident now to proceed with a Lecturer application.” (Participant, March 2023)