Ally Hughes, Project Manager (Episode 51) | Ally is building partnerships across the life sciences research community
For this episode of the Research Adjacent podcast Sarah is talking to Ally Hughes. Ally is Project Manager for the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance, also known as SULSA. SULSA fosters research collaborations between different organisations, different disciplines and even different countries.
Building partnerships
Ally’s role at SULSA is primarily about partnerships and industry engagement. She also manages their social media and supports training programmes and events. She has recently been helping to broker a research collaboration agreement between partners in the Rheinland-Pfalz area of Germany and Scottish universities.
“A lot of that interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary work is really where there’s impact and really exciting stuff happening.”
It was during her PhD that Ally began considering alternative career paths. Her PhD included an industrial placement which helped her understand that world. She also grabbed the opportunity to get involved with SULSA as an early career rep – a move which ultimately led to her current role. Working at SULSA has given her the connection to science and innovation she was craving but without the same level of responsibility.
“I think just being able to keep that little hook into research and hearing about all of the cool stuff that’s happening, but not having the responsibility of conducting it myself.”
Being part of a team of just 3 people also means her role has lots of variety and opportunities for learning.
With a little help from her friends
Figuring out where she fits in has, at times, been tough for Ally. She dropped out of her first PhD program in Florida, and finally completing her PhD during COVID was both personally challenging and something of an anti-climax.
“It’s one thing when you’re stuck looking at your four walls writing a thesis. It’s another thing when you’re stuck looking at those four walls, writing a thesis, and you can’t leave at the end of the day to go and exercise, or to meet up with some friends or whatever.”
She talks honestly about the toll this took on her mental health and the fact that, in difficult times, she has been able to lean on her support networks to get her through.
“I have learned not only the importance of having a professional network, but also the importance of having that personal network, and how much that counts in helping you get through those tough times.”
Advocating for change
Perhaps it is that appreciation of the ways people can support each other that led Ally to one of the projects she is most proud of. As an ECR rep for SULSA she was involved in a study which looked at research culture, diversity and inequalities in the sciences.
“I felt like we were able to give a voice to researchers that don’t often get given a voice, and we were able to do it in a way that wasn’t adding undue pressure to them, but just actually just giving them the space to say what they felt like needed to be said and to have their voice heard.”
Ally’s lived experience and strong sense of purpose is also reflected in her magic wand wish, which is to enable more fluidity in the research world so that people can learn, collaborate and contribute more flexibly.
“I think in order to solve some of the quite massive global challenges that we’re facing at the moment, I think we need all hands on deck. I think everyone needs to work collectively and collaboratively to solve those challenges.”
Find out more
Theme music by Lemon Music Studios from Pixabay
Episode Transcript
Ally Hughes 00:00
I think in order to solve some of the quite massive global challenges that we’re facing at the moment, I think we need all hands on deck. You know, we can no longer do this. Everyone stays in their lane. I think everyone needs to work collectively and collaboratively. I have learned not only the importance of having a professional network, but also the importance of having that personal network, and how much that counts in helping you get through those tough times.
Sarah McLusky 00:24
Hello there. I’m Sarah McLusky, and this is Research Adjacent each episode, I talk to amazing research adjacent professionals about what they do and why it makes a difference. Keep listening to find out why we think the research adjacent space is where the real magic happens. Hello there, and welcome to the Research Adjacent podcast. I’m your host, Sarah McLusky, and after the fun of the 50th episode and a break for the holidays, normal service resumes today with episode 51 and a brand new guest. Today, we’re going to meet Ally Hughes, who is Project Manager for the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance, more commonly known as SULSA. SULSA supports research collaborations between academia and industry, as well as across disciplines and countries. As you’ll hear. The team at salsa is small, so Ally has a very varied role, which recently included coordinating a partnership between Scotland and Germany. When I spoke to Ally a couple of months ago, the deal had just been signed, but I saw on LinkedIn that the German delegation visit she talks about is actually happening this week, so I imagine she is very busy right now. As well as talking about work, Ally also talks really honestly about some of the challenges that she has had with her mental health, including feeling like failure when she dropped out of her first PhD, and the anticlimax of finally finishing her PhD, but during COVID, as Ally says herself, she’s learned the importance of both personal and professional support during tough times. So listen on to hear Ally’s story. Welcome onto the podcast, Ally. Thank you so much for joining us.
Ally Hughes 02:01
Thank you so much for having me.
Sarah McLusky 02:03
Lovely to see you here. So I wonder if we could begin by hearing a little bit about what it is that you do. Yeah.
Ally Hughes 02:12
So my role at the minute is project coordinator with the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance. We were one of a series of pools that were set up across STEM disciplines in Scotland to support research collaboration and support researcher development. So that’s the role that I have at the minute. Although it’s titled as project manager because we’re part of a small, dynamic team, there’s quite a lot of hat swapping that goes on. So within that, I kind of lead our international activity and kind of partnership building in that area, and then also some of our industry engagement work as well.
Sarah McLusky 02:48
Excellent. Thank you. So when you say it’s a small team, how many people are there? I know it’s sometimes hard to say, when people work part time and things like that, no,
Ally Hughes 02:56
We’re three full time staff members, and two thirds of that team is called Ali, yeah. And so we really are a small team. We are hoping to to expand and this year to bring on some additional support. But for the most part, it is our director, Ali McIntosh, myself as project manager, and then Jill Inkster as our operations officer,
Sarah McLusky 03:18
Fantastic. Oh yeah, definitely. If you’re in a team that small, I imagine at times it’s just all hands on deck. Just do to
Ally Hughes 03:21
Absolutely yeah, whatever needs to be done gets done, and whoever has a free a free hand or a spare brain cell to do it.
Sarah McLusky 03:35
And is that something you like? Do you like being in a small team or the variety of it?
Ally Hughes 03:40
I really love the variety, and I think that even though I’ve been in the role for a short time, so I started in October 2021 fresh after finishing my PhD. So even though I’ve been in it for a short amount of time, I feel like I’ve had so many learning and development opportunities, because there’s been so many different areas where I’ve kind of tagged in or supported or taken lead. So that’s been really fun. I mean, it also means that it it’s a lot of new learning every day, so that can be a little bit overwhelming at times, but generally speaking, I really enjoy it. I love the variety of it, and I love the variety of people that I get to work with as a result of that as well.
Sarah McLusky 04:17
Yeah. So you’re saying that in terms of the variety of the kind of things you do in the people that you work with. Project manager is one of those job titles that could cover just about anything. So what does your day to day role involve?
Ally Hughes 04:32
Yeah, and so most days are quite different. I would say the only thing that is consistent in my life is that there are emails in my inbox that I that I don’t feel like I have enough time to respond to. So there is quite a lot of of correspondence in that sense, and quite a lot of communications across different stakeholders. And we are, we’re an alliance of universities, so we have 13 members, so we have 12 universities and a research institute in Scotland, so having clear communication between each of those partners, and making sure that we have the right contacts in each university is quite a big part of that. And then in terms of actual, I guess, kind of projects, I manage our early career committee, so that’s made up of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and early stage principal investigators from across the life sciences, in our members. So I manage that committee. I also manage our social media. So that’s another kind of realm to the communications that that I’ve been trying to lead on. And then our international activity, primarily working with the Rheinland-Pfalz ministry in Germany. So we’ve got quite a big body of work with them. We’ve just had a had a really exciting cooperation agreement signed last week for that work, but that includes a delegation visit to Scotland, having the ministry come to visit, sorry, having a delegation visit to Germany, having the ministry come and visit us in Scotland. So organizing the activities around that, and the agenda for that, we had an international conference this year for early career researchers held online. So I did quite a lot of the organizing for that. And then we’ve got another delegation. This is work that we’re doing with kind of the German Research funding agency. We’ve been chosen as their European pilot country for supporting universities of applied sciences and networking. So that’s another delegation visit that will happen in September, and so I’m helping to coordinate the agenda for that. And then in terms of our industry engagement, that’s we have an annual conference which is all around industry-academia collaboration. So I very much just play a periphery supporting role in that and helping on the day. And then we’ve got our forging futures, which is another training program we do for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, and that is looking at just building their confidence, their training and their network, for engaging with industry, whether that’s for transitioning into a job in industry, whether that’s maybe setting up some research collaborations with industry.
Sarah McLusky 07:02
So it really does sound like you’re doing a huge variety of different things then in your role. So tell us a bit about I mean, I’m kind of picking up a bit on it, I think. But what, actually? So it’s the you use the acronym SULSA, don’t you? Scottish Universities Life Sciences Association,
Ally Hughes 07:21
Alliance, yeah.
Sarah McLusky 07:22
Alliance, yeah. They use the acronym SULSA. So what does SULSA exist for? What’s its aim? What are all these activities building? Yeah.
Ally Hughes 07:32
So within SULSA, we describe ourselves as the gateway into the the active and vibrant life sciences community here in Scotland. And I would say that we kind of have two levels at which we operate, so the first one is that kind of grassroots level. So we do quite a lot of work in the researcher development space. We have training events, networking events, and small pots of funding that we use to help researchers, so from PhD students upwards to support them in their career development, and whether that be within academia or out with academia. And then on the other level is kind of the more strategic level that we work at. And so that’s where we’re working with the likes of the ministry in Germany. We work with Scottish government industry leadership groups, and really just try to act as a collective voice on behalf of life sciences in Scotland, on behalf of our universities in Scotland, and to try and bring more opportunity to those researchers. So kind of lobby on their behalf and scope for opportunities that we can bring back to them.
Sarah McLusky 08:35
And is this because life sciences is a particular seen as a particularly important area for Scotland? Or do similar organizations exist?
Ally Hughes 08:45
Yeah. So the research pools were set up by the Scottish Funding Council, I think, about 15 years ago now. And there’s nine of us, as far as I can remember, working across various different STEM disciplines. And so yeah, I’ll focus with life sciences, but there’s one for energy, engineering, chemistry, physics, computing science and medical imaging. So they kind of were brought into key STEM areas, all with a similar remit of trying to bring academia together and sort of bring that have that sort of collective mind, that collaborative attitudes towards research, and then ours, we’re no longer funded by the Scottish Funding Council now, so SULSA have moved into a fully university owned model, so each of our universities pay a subscription fee, and so that’s what kind of funds our core activity, and then we go scoping for other funding so that we can enhance or expand the activity that we run and give back. And then some of the other research pools from that transition, some of them are funded a little bit differently now. So some of them have partnerships with industry and so that funds what they’re doing, or they do a lot more kind of consultation type work that keeps them funded. So now we operate, I think, a little bit differently, and. But still under this massive umbrella called Research Innovation Scotland, which also includes the innovation centers in Scotland, and they’re more industry facing. So we kind of have our academic research pools and our industry facing innovation centers, and we all are kind of working somewhat harmoniously towards supporting research and innovation in Scotland. But I would say that life sciences is a really key area. I think there’s about 40,000 jobs in Scotland in the life sciences sector. We’ve got about 700 companies, a lot of those being spin out, spin out and startup companies. So it’s a really vibrant ecosystem here.
Sarah McLusky 10:37
Yeah, certainly a lot going on, it sounds like, so I’m picking up the fact that despite being based in Scotland, you don’t sound like you’re originally from Scotland. As somebody who is originally from Scotland, tell us about your journey to how you’ve ended up in Scotland, how you’ve ended up in this role. What’s your path been?
10:57
Yeah, absolutely. I’m a little bit disappointed. This is my best Weegie accent. So yeah. So I grew up in Ireland. I’m from a small enough town called Tullamore in the Midlands, home of the famous Tullamore Dew whiskey. So I still have that running strong between my two homes. I then did, I did a general sciences degree at what is now called the University of Galway. It was the National Universities of Ireland in Galway when I was attending it. And so in that I kind of specialise in chemistry. So I’m not even a life scientist by trade, really. I’ve kind of come in under cloak and dagger. But yeah, so my background training was in chemistry. I did do some biochemistry as part of my degree and a semester of physiology. So I pretend like that counts, but I remember very little of it now. And then I actually started a PhD in the States. So so I went to the University of South Florida and joined the graduate program there to do a PhD in marine natural products drug discovery. So it’s just looking for for new potential medicines from various marine organisms, including little Antarctic sea slugs. And I really, really struggled during that time. I found it very difficult to be in in Florida, being away from my home and kind of the hierarchical system there, and was very competitive, so I really struggled. And so I left that program, and was very lucky, actually, to secure another PhD position at the University of Strathclyde. So with that, doing similar work, but with a different slant, so also looking for medicines, specifically antibiotics, this time from marine microalgae from Scottish waters. So it’s kind of a marine biotechnology PhD and more in that sense. And that was through the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Center, which is one of the innovation centers I mentioned before. So it was their PhD program, which meant that I had an industry placement built into my PhD program. And so I think that really allowed me to get a very broad view of what was going on in research and a little bit in the innovation field as well. And as PhD student, I got involved in SULSA, actually, as one of their early career researcher reps. So that’s kind of how I got involved in this in the first place, and started to become interested, and started thinking that maybe there was a life for me outside of research that that I wasn’t really willing to look at before the pandemic, and so I finished my PhD during the pandemic, and goodness me, like most people did quite a lot of soul searching during that period of time. It’s one thing when you’re stuck looking at your four walls writing a thesis. It’s another thing when you’re stuck looking at those four walls writing a thesis, and you can’t leave at the end of the day to go and even to go exercise, or to go for to meet up with some friends or whatever. So that was when I started thinking that maybe research wasn’t the life that I wanted to pursue, and that was quite a difficult decision for me to come to. And I did. I did apply for for postdoctoral positions, maybe, maybe a little bit half heartedly, applied for it. And when the role came up with SULSA, I just decided to go for it. I already kind of knew the team a little bit from being there as an early career rep, and at the time, it was an eight month position. So I was like, This is great. I can join this for a few months. I’ll have, you know, maybe a paper or two to write up for my PhD. So that’ll be great. It won’t even look like I’ve gone and taken on another opportunity, or that I’ve tested the waters outside of research. And obviously, we’re, what, two and a half years later, and I’m still in this role. So yeah, I haven’t really looked back since.
Sarah McLusky 14:38
Yeah, and what have you found to be the main thing that’s kept you in that role? You know, as you say, it sounds like you were initially maybe thinking, maybe I’ll go back to the research. I’m not sure. Why have you stayed?
Ally Hughes 14:53
I would say that this probably it fulfills it like it scratches the itch for research. So I did a general sciences degree because I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to specialize in, or what subject that I really liked. I loved science very generally. I wasn’t good at science very generally, but I very generally. And within the work that I do with SULSA, I get to talk to researchers across a wide variety of disciplines, like where it’s not just life sciences that we work with but even within life sciences, you’re talking about everything from medical sciences to plant sciences, biotechnology, environmental science. It covers a really wide range of disciplines. And then we’re also working with people in engineering departments and physics and chemistry and computing science, because a lot of those, a lot of that interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary work is really where there’s impact kind of happening for that really exciting stuff happening. So I think that’s what’s really kept me I mean, the variety and the learning opportunities I get are phenomenal. But I think just being able to keep that little, that little hook into research and hearing about all of the cool stuff that’s happening, but not having the responsibility of conducting it myself, yeah, it’s a nice balance.
Sarah McLusky 16:14
I know what you mean. Some of what you said there, I could have almost said exactly the same thing myself. So, yeah, fantastic. Oh, well, I’m sure, I mean, you say it’s only been two and a half years, but two and a half years is still quite a while in one job. So I I’m sure there must be some things that you’ve done that you’re really proud of. Maybe you’d like to tell us about some.
Ally Hughes 16:36
Yeah, I think two things come to mind and with that. So one of them is actually a project that we started while I was still an early career rep, there was a lot coming out, and I think a lot of of attention and focus being given to the inequalities and the lack of diversity across STEM and how, how this was such a systemic issue. And so I was sitting at home, and I was feeling very helpless and very hopeless about it, and we had an early career researcher meeting with the with the SULSA committee. And so I kind of brought this up, and was like, I’d really, I’d really love to do something. I really think that we have the potential here to just just give a voice to people. So we started the breaking barriers in STEM initiatives. So it was ourselves and a few of the other research pools in Scotland teamed together and we ran an online event in 2020 I think it was October 2020 we ran an online event, and then from that, we had some working groups come out of that looking at different areas that we could address. So looking at the leaky pipeline, looking at supporting international students, looking at mental health and well being in postgraduate studies and research and decolonizing the curriculum was the was the fourth one that we looked at. And so these working groups then went away and started doing, you know, some additional workshops, or some research and reports, and started doing some work in those areas. So that program ran for about two years, and then we had a wrap up meeting of breaking barriers through the looking glass, keeping with the theme of Alice in Wonderland that we started. And so we, yeah, we kind of wrapped it up then, but it was a two year project where I felt like we were able to give a voice to researchers that don’t often get given a voice, and we were able to do it in a way that wasn’t adding undue pressure to them, but just actually just giving them the space to say what they felt like needed to be say and said and to have their voice heard. So that was a really important piece of work that I did, and we’re still looking for avenues of how we can pick up more of that work as well and support it, I think particularly now that there’s quite a big focus amongst the universities on research culture, I think that’s a piece so that we can pick back up again and really contribute to again. And then the other one is probably the international work that we’ve been doing. So I mentioned last week we were in Dundee. We had a ministry from Rhineland-Pfalz over visiting, and so we actually signed a cooperation agreement for a joint hub between Scotland and Rhineland-Pfalz. So this will allow for bilateral research exchange funding for our biennial Research Conference to continue. We’re also going to have a research showcase in the in the alternate years from that and scoping for opportunity to have a joint international PhD program. And so that’s another piece I think researchers are are really struggling. And you know, we haven’t had access to Horizon Europe funding, which is huge pot of funding, access to the EU we’re no longer part of the Erasmus program. So that really stunts kind of student and researcher mobility, and I think that’s really been felt, particularly among our early career researchers. So that’s something that I’m really proud of, that I did quite a lot of the work on the on the SULSA side, and I was leading that work on our side to make that happen. And so we’re really excited that it’s going to launch in April next year.
Sarah McLusky 20:00
Yeah, fantastic. That is exciting. And does it mean that you’ve been able to go for some trips over to Germany as well? Yeah?
Ally Hughes 20:08
Yeah, absolutely. I spent six weeks in Germany last summer. I did quite a lot of traveling during that was a very intensive few weeks, but it was amazing. And got a really good understanding of the research funding landscape there and the research landscape, because it’s very different. The way they have their universities and institutes set up is very different. And then I’ve also been over to Mainz in Rhineland-Pfalz a couple of times as well.
Sarah McLusky 20:30
Yeah, nice. And I think it also as well. It demonstrates something that I that comes up a lot on the podcast, is the amount of work that goes you know, it’s nice to say, oh, yeah, let’s have a collaboration with, you know, another university, another country, whatever it is. But there’s actually a lot of work goes into making that happen. You know, the relationship building, the paperwork that’s involved, you know, all of that stuff that we don’t necessarily see from the outside.
Ally Hughes 20:58
Yeah, absolutely. And even, like, the, there’s the kind of physical work of, you know, the the events that we plan and the the paperwork and the documents into it, but that, that relationship piece is just so important. I mean, I know that there’s lots of people who are listening to this that are going to be that have had people harping on to them about how important your network is and how important those relationships are, but they’re not saying it for no reason. It is really important to build those relationships. And I think we’ve been really, really lucky, particularly with the work we’ve been doing with both with the DFG, with the German Research funding agency, and their partners in Rhineland-Pfalz that we are all very enthusiastic, very passionate, and just we’re both driving it from both ends. You can find sometimes that even though the outcome of a of partnership might be exactly what you want, if you don’t have that kind of equal push and pull on both sides, it’s just it makes it really difficult, and it really, it really creates such a bottleneck in driving things forward. And so we’ve been really lucky to have really, really strong partners on that side that are equally as enthusiastic as us, that want the same kind of things from this venture. And so it’s been, it’s been a joy working with them, to be honest.
Sarah McLusky 22:12
Oh, fantastic. That sounds brilliant. And so I’m sure that although these things are things that have gone very well, there are some things that have been a little bit more tricky, what have been the biggest challenges that you’ve faced?
Ally Hughes 22:26
So I think throughout, I think throughout all of my time, from kind of being an undergraduate, through my first attempt at a PhD, and then my second, more successful attempt at a PhD, and now into the working world is my mental health. I’ve suffered with that quite a lot. I tend to get very anxious. Imposter syndrome plays a big role in my life, and so I’ve really, I’ve really struggled with that, and at times, to the point where I’ve sought counselling and therapy in order to be able to help deal with those. And I think from that, I have learned not only the importance of having a professional network, but also the importance of having that personal network and how much, how much that counts in helping you get through those tough times. I’ve had incredible mentors that have helped me through it, an incredible group of friends that are both in science and in STEM and in academia. So they understand the specific pressures of doing a PhD or preparing for a conference talk that you’re terrified of giving. They kind of understand those specifics. But then also having my group of friends from home who’ve been phenomenal at just reminding me of who I am a little bit as well. I think it’s, it’s a very competitive field research can be, and I think we put a lot of, there’s a lot of external pressures, but I think because of the nature of what we do as researchers, or those who are supporting research, I think we also have a lot of internal pressure. I think we put a lot on ourselves to deliver things we see where the challenges are, and we want to fix everything for everyone all of the time, and it can become really overwhelming, and so I think it’s really important to look after your mental health first and foremost. And if you do need help, reach out to whatever avenues you need to in order to get that help, but then also use that network and use the people around you that just kind of bring you back down to center a little bit as well.
Sarah McLusky 24:24
Yeah, oh, thank you so much for talking about that. Because, yeah, I think it is something. Loads of people I’ve talked to have challenges with imposter experiences. Loads of people that I talk to have had those. I mean, blimey, doing a PhD. I you know, I don’t know if there’s anybody gets through a PhD, like, fully, without any kind of incidents in the middle
Ally Hughes 24:47
Yeah, sorry, from that experience of doing, of attempting the PhD in Florida, I then kind of already went into starting the PhD in in Strathclyde, thinking I was a failure. Like, not. Being sure if I was cut out for it. So there was those sort of extra doubts that were put in there, around whether I’m cut out to be a researcher, and whether I’m cut out to do a PhD. And so I think that’s that’s a huge struggle that people face is just not knowing if they’re good enough. And it’s really the first time in your life that you don’t have a grade unless you’ve gone away and worked before coming in to do a PhD, but if you’ve gone straight through as a student, it’s the first time that you don’t have a letter or a number to define how well you’re doing. And that was just like, I never knew that I needed that, or I relied on that so much for that kind of security of having a grade. And I’m not saying that I was an A grade student or anything like that, but I at least knew where I stood. Whereas you go into PhD and you go into the working field, you don’t have that you have your reviews and stuff, but you don’t have that kind of number or that grade to rely on to know how well you’re doing. I found that so challenging.
Sarah McLusky 25:55
Yeah, it’s really interesting. I found as well, the unstructured part of it really difficult. As well. The way it was like, yeah, you’ve got three years, you know, I’m like, what? There’s no deadlines. There’s no, like, you know, reports or assignments or things I have to do in between. Yeah, that’s really hard as well.
Ally Hughes 26:12
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the, I think a lot of people refer to a PhD as a marathon, and so I was like, Cool. So I need to be productive every single day for the next three years in order to do it. But I think it’s more like sprint intervals where periods of productivity and periods of things that that do happen and do click, and you do start getting some results, and then you’re going to have those periods where you’re just waiting, waiting for for things to kind of click up again and to get that boost of motivation and productivity?
Sarah McLusky 26:42
Yeah, no, definitely. But I think that, I mean, you must have been as well, even with that history that you came to it with finishing up your PhD during COVID, must just, I just can’t even imagine.
Ally Hughes 26:57
I’m not sure it’s really, yeah, it felt a bit surreal, and it felt a little bit anti climatic at the time. I’m not going to but I think that was just the nature of of how things were at that time. I was really lucky that I was able to kind of celebrate when I when I did my viva. I did have a, have a big blowout party. I was like, just in case, you know, I might not ever get married, and I’m sure if, if having kids is in my plan. So this might be my the big bash of my life is, is passing this PhD. So I went all out and had a big, massive party for it. And I was lucky to be able to do that. But it was, yeah, it was a bit of a surreal, kind of anti-climactic feeling of like, I’ve done all this work and I’ve done everything, and it’s almost the the journey is really the the thing, right? It’s not, it’s not the piece of paper at the end of it. It really is the journey and everything that you learn, both technically and about yourself and about kind of those transferable skills. It’s really that journey that that is the kind of the important part and the achievement. It was a little bit weird. Yeah, when I got the piece of paper, it felt a little bit disappointing, almost. But I think that was just the nature of the time that we were in everything.
Sarah McLusky 28:04
It’s fantastic that you’re now able to look back on it and see that it was the journey that was important and make sense of it. And also, I mean, you know, any excuse for party, so I’m with you on that one. Excellent. Oh, well, I do like to ask all my guests, and I think you know, if they had a magic wand, what they would change about the world that they work in. So what do you want to use your magic wand for?
Ally Hughes 28:30
I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think at one point I had a list of about 15 things that I wanted to change. And it’s not that I think I love the area that I work in, and I think that there is great people and great things happening, but I think that there is also quite a lot of systemic flaws that if we were able to change would be amazing. I think the one thing that I’m going to that I’m going to say, and I think it’s been echoed by a few other people that have worked in similar space, that have been on the podcast, is is just removing some of that rigidity and making things a little bit more fluid. I’m really lucky in my role that I get to work with researchers, researcher development, innovation specialists, industry, so many different people, policy makers and government. I get to work with so many different people, and from that, I’ve learned so many different things and about how all of these different sectors operate, and what their kind of language is, and what are the kind the things that are important to them. And so I would love to see careers just being a little bit more fluid, where we have lots more secondments in different areas, where we have lots more blending between industry and academia, where going away and working in industry or working in policy, and then coming back to an academic research that that’s much more widely, not only more widely accepted, but what is happening more widely, that is actually physically happening more widely. Because I think, I think in order to solve some of the quite massive global challenges that we’re facing, at the most. Moment, I think we need all hands on deck. And so I think that, you know, we can no longer do this. Everyone stays in their lane. I think everyone needs to work collectively and collaboratively to solve those challenges. And so I’d love to see more fluidity happening across disciplines and across sectors. And I think that would be really exciting to see. I think it would be a great professional development opportunity for individuals, and I think it might actually get us to where we need to get, in terms of driving innovation forward and having that that real life impact.
Sarah McLusky 30:29
Sounds like an absolutely excellent plan to me. Yes, brilliant. Well, I think it just remains to give you an opportunity to tell us, if anybody wants to find out more about you, more about the work that you do. Where’s the best place to find out about you? Find out about SULSA?
Ally Hughes 30:46
Yeah. So you can find me on LinkedIn. I’m @AllyHughes. There’s there’s probably a few of us. I think in my cover photo I’ve got short blue hair. And if that helps anybody find finding me, and then I would definitely recommend we do quite a lot in this space of career development and supporting researchers, so kind of ties in a little bit with the with the theme of your podcast. So I’d highly recommend people to go to sulsa.ac.uk and have a look at our website for different funding opportunities we have, but also some of the events and training that we have coming up as well. Um, we’re also on we’re on LinkedIn as SULSA. We’re on Twitter @sulsatweets, and we are on Instagram @sulsascot, but probably the most up to date place is the website. And sign on for our mailing list.
Sarah McLusky 31:33
Fantastic. I’ll get all those links in the show notes as well, so anybody can find them there. So thank you so much for coming along and sharing your story and being so honest and yeah, just telling us all about what you do.
Ally Hughes 31:48
Yeah thank you so much for having me. I was really excited. I love this podcast, so I was really excited to contribute to it.
Sarah McLusky 31:54
Thanks for listening to Research Adjacent. If you’re listening in a podcast app, please check your subscribed and then use the links in the episode description to find full show notes and follow the podcast on LinkedIn or Instagram. You can also find all the links and other episodes at www.researchadjacent.com. Research Adjacent is presented and produced by Sarah McLusky, and the theme music is by Lemon Music Studios on Pixabay. And you. yes you, get a big gold star for listening right to the end. See you next time you.
