In late 2022, Juan Quintana approached a few PIs about how we could better collaborate across institutes. At the same time, Lilach Sheiner saw some funding opportunities for building collaborative academic research networks… and so we started to discuss how we could better support collaborations between the parasitology groups in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee.
Thus SPPIRIT was born! Mattie, Lilach, and Sarah Reece co-founded the Scottish Parasitology Partnership in Innovation, Research, and Training.
Website: https://sppirit.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SPPIRITnetwork
We had our kick-off event in March 2022 in Glasgow (100+ participants):
Our first annual ECR syposium was then held at Moredun in September 2022 (sold-out event with 125+ participants). Jack from the lab was chosen to give a presentation, and Flora presented a poster about her upcoming Masters project.
We’ve hosted a workshop on writing a fellowship application (small group of about 12 attendees hosted by 2 successful PDRA fellows and 2 senior PIs):
We hosted a virtual “idea pitching session” for applicants to a SULSA funding call:
SPPIRT organised and chaired a session at the most recent IDRIS meeting, highlighting posters presenters that are ECRs:
And we sponsored 3 ECRs to attend a lab leadership training course hosted by the Royal Society of Biology.
SPPIRIT is also hosted a session at the 2023 British Society for Parasitology Annual Spring Meeting in Edinburgh.
To get involved and to hear about upcoming events, you can sign-up to our slack channel (sppirit.slack.com), follow SPPIRIT on twitter, check the website for regular updates, or subscribe to our newsletter: https://sppirit.net/
Mattie Christine Pawlowic Lab 