Early career researchers

We are committed to career development, support and training to develop the research leaders of the future. We foster an agile, vibrant research community through mentoring, peer support, tailored workshops and enable our talented Early Career Researchers to gain doctoral supervision experience.

Our Concordat to support the career development of researchers provides a robust framework for career development and we have retained our HR Excellence in Research Award, recognising our continued and innovative work to enhance research environment and culture, employment and professional development.

The early career researcher network (ECRN) includes a wide range of staff at the university, from post-doctoral researchers to senior staff engaging in research for the first time. Led by our Early Career Researcher Ambassador, it has been set up to provide a forum for support, networking and collaborations.

More specifically to:

provide a supportive virtual space for early career researchers across the university to meet up and share their experiences
offer information on a range of funding and opportunities in one space, saving time and effort
deliver a space to establish shared interests and facilitate inter and intra departmental collaborations
ensure effective representation of Early Career Researcher interests.

Barbara Grabher

Dr Barbara Grabher
Early Career Researcher Ambassador

Keep Momentum Podcast – Episode #1: Rejection with Dr Sarah Purnell

The ECR network at the University of Brighton presents the Keep Momentum Podcast.

ECR Newsletter: October 2025

Dear ECR community, I hope you had a good and smooth start into the new semester and are back in the swing of things.

Research Momentum 2025: Looking back!

Uschi Klein spent June and July this summer doing archival research in the context of their Visegrad Fellowship at the Blinken Open Society Archive in Budapest working on the broader topic of “Everyday media practices of resistance in Communist Romania.

Research Momentum 2025: Developing Models

Shirin Saberianpour is developing a Novel In Vitro 3D Vascularised Osteoid Model by SAOS-2 Osteoblasts and Human Umbilical Vascular Endothelial Cells co-cultured in 2D conditions on the Synthetic Biomimetic Substrate PhenoDrive.

We pride ourselves on supporting the aspirations of the next generation of research leaders. Find out more about the experiences of some of our own Early Career Researchers (ECRs) below.

Dr Aakanksha Virkar Yates

I am a literary scholar working on late 19th-century and 20th-century British literature. I have always worked in interdisciplinary ways, looking at intersections between literature and visual culture, music, philosophy and aesthetics. I was attracted to Brighton particularly because of its reputation for interdisciplinary work of this kind. Since joining, I have found my work increasingly shifting in a more political direction, influenced by the research culture and Centres of Research and Knowledge Exchange Excellence here. My work looks at the idea of Beethoven in British modernism, in the context of inter-war politics.

Read our feature on Dr Aakanksha Virkar Yates in our Research and Enterprise Newsletter, Issue 9 on page 26.

Dr Katherine Staines

My research focuses on understanding what happens to our skeleton in disease and in ageing. I am particularly interested in the disease osteoarthritis which causes significant pain and disability and yet, there is still no effective personalised treatment. I was attracted to Brighton for the growing musculoskeletal research taking place here and have been awarded internal Rising Stars funding to enable me to investigate new mechanisms which may contribute to osteoarthritis pre-disposition.

Read our feature on Dr Katherine Staines in our Research and Enterprise Newsletter, Issue 10 on page 44.

Dr Samantha Lynch

The main focus of my research has been on the role of time and prediction in architecture drawing. In practice, drawing is key to conjuring the future; sets of plans and sections describe what a building is to become. Many architects use drawing as the way to imagine out a future architecture, and to make connections with the future site. Yet this intimate relationship between drawing and prediction is often overlooked. My research intensifies this very rich temporal territory, offering new perspectives on future thinking. As part of an architecture programme that is innovative in re-imagining notions of site in contemporary practice, the University of Brighton has been the perfect place to pursue this creative research.

Read our feature on Dr Samantha Lynch in our Research and Enterprise Newsletter, Issue 11 on page 34.

Dr Francesco Magaletti

My research focuses on the understanding of the detailed mechanism of bubble formation during boiling and cavitation. Despite our common experience with water boiling in a pot, a fully predictive mathematical model is still lacking. The effect of surface roughness, surface wettability, and gas content dissolved in the liquid, still needs to be investigated. University of Brighton, and in particular the group led by Professor Marco Marengo with his well-regarded experience, is the perfect place to carry out this analysis.

Read our feature on Dr Francesco Magaletti in our Research and Enterprise Newsletter, Issue 12 on page 43.

Dr Roxana Cavalcanti

My research and teaching focus on examining questions around intersecting inequalities, violence and social justice activism. I joined the University of Brighton as a Lecturer in Criminology in 2018, after completing my PhD at King’s College London (2017) and after taking my second career break for maternity leave. Prior to that, I was a lecturer at the University of Westminster and a research fellow at the Kluge Centre, Library of Congress, US.

Since then, I have been an active member of various networks and professional societies, including the Urban Violence Research Network, the Feminist Urban Violence Research Collective (which I co-founded), British Society of Criminology and European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control. In addition, I acted as Early Career Ambassador at the University of Brighton in 2021–2022.

Read our feature on Dr Roxana Cavalcanti in our Research and Knowledge Exchange Newsletter, Issue 13 on page 21.

Podcasts

Our regular podcasts often feature our researchers from across the university. With interesting insights into current projects and interesting topics, do listen in. There are over 100 podcasts in the back catalogue. Here is a small selection of some featuring our Early Career Researchers.