Tuesday 14 June 2016

The CATCH team take their away day right to The Edge



Last week the CATCH team enjoyed their annual Away Day. Held at the University’s hospitality suite, The Edge, in the pleasant green surroundings of Endcliffe; more than 30 members of the team spent a busy day listening to guest speakers, taking part in career development activities and grabbing the opportunity to contribute to how CATCH communicates our unique skills and expertise.

After an address from Professor Mark Hawley, Centre Director, who took the team through where we are now and where we’re going, the team learnt some interesting facts in the ice breaker when asked the questions “what would you do if you won the Lottery?” and “share  a fact that no-one knows about you”. Amongst plans for flash new cars and small holdings, the recurring theme on how to spend the win was to reinvest it by funding research projects in a Dragon’s Den style or setting up wellness centres for disadvantaged people.

An unexpected competitiveness to the day emerged with the “gone in 60 seconds” activity - giving each researcher just one minute to tell the group about all their live projects. The team rose to the challenge well.

The most in-depth session of the day engaged the team in contributing to the way we articulate the application areas of CATCH, sparking healthy debate across the room. Following lunch an early career researcher development session, chaired by Dr Rebecca Palmer, was very well received, as was Anneliese Fraser’s marketing and branding talk which spurred on the team to feedback through colouring in a questionnaire.

The day was rounded off nicely when we were lucky to be joined by Dr Andrew Booth of the School of Health and Related Research at Sheffield and Dr Wendy Baird from Design, Trials and Statistics. Dr Booth shared the secrets to creating more impactful academic papers and Dr Baird introduced the group to the myriad of funding opportunities available from NIHR.

Of course no Away Day could be complete if it didn’t end with a well earned trip to the pub. Until next year… Cheers!

Written by Laura Murray





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