Postdoc Congress

Wednesday May 20, 2026 - The Octagon (Mile End Campus)

The theme for the 2026 Congress explores how your responsibilities shape your research, your development, and the communities you influence within and beyond Queen Mary. The Congress will give postdocs an opportunity to commune with their peers, to hear about and discuss lived experiences as Queen Mary postdocs, and to amplify postdoc voice by feeding this back.

To book your place, visit CPD-Training

2026 Postdoc Congress Programme

You can download the full programme here Postdoc Congress 2026 - Working Programme [PDF 56KB]

This year's Congress features

Dr Emma Williams – co-author of “What Every Postdoc Needs to Know” and author of “Leaving Academia Ditch the blanket, take the skills” leads a short workshop to help postdocs make more deliberate choices about how they use their time and experience with a view to supporting their next career step.

Postdoc Life
Queen Mary ECR Forum Members, reflect on taking ownership of their professional development and prioritising contributions to their local research environment alongside their research. Featuring:

Dr Isabelle Foote – a new lecturer in the Wolfson Institute for Population Health
Dr Mark Niyompatama - a new lecturer in the School of Law
Dr Nhan Nguyen - a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Precision Healthcare University Research Institute

Table Discussions
These offer those in attendance an opportunity to discuss issues relevant to the theme, and to feedback your thoughts and suggestions to relevant stakeholders. These topics will be published closer to the Congress. See below for examples from last year's Congress.

Inspiring Future Leaders
A Panel of Queen Mary Academics discuss responsibility and responsible leadership. Featuring:

Dr Szilvia Mosonyi, Senior Lecturer in Responsible Leadership in the School of Business and Management
Prof Claudia Garetto, S&E EDI Lead and Professor in Mathematics in the School of Mathematical Sciences
Dr Pierre Maillard UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Antiviral Immunity at the Blizard Institute
Dr Daragh Murray UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Reader in International Law and Human Rights in the School of Law

Table Discussion Information

Every year the Postdoc Congress features a series of table discussion where postdocs get to share about thier lived experience at Queen Mary Postdocs, and feedback to the insitution about this experience. Postdocs will engage in 2 - 30min (approx.) conversations in small groups.

To support note-taking and action planning in these discussions, visit our Linktr.ee Page for Padlet links for your discussion topic.

Table 1: Making the Most of Development and Appraisal Conversations
How can postdocs use development and appraisal discussions to plan their next steps and better articulate their career needs?

Table 2: QM Researcher Welcome Resources – Tell Us What You Think
You will review mock‑ups of new online induction resources for researchers. What works, what doesn’t, and what would make these genuinely useful for postdocs?

Table 3: Normalising Career Conversations
What responsibility do postdocs have in initiating career and development conversations, and what helps make these effective?

Table 4: Sustaining Yourself in Research
What decisions and practices help postdocs work productively over time in high‑pressure research environments, and what support structures make this more achievable?

Table 5: What I Wish I’d Known at the Start
What information would have been most useful to you when you first started as a postdoc?

Table 6: Protecting Time for Development
What strategies help postdocs protect time for professional development within busy research roles?

Table 7: Driving a Thriving Research Culture
What can I do, as a postdoc, to help drive a robust and thriving research culture at Queen Mary?

Table 8: Fostering Inclusion Through Everyday Practice
As a member of Queen Mary, what can I do to help foster a more inclusive research environment through my everyday actions?

Getting to the Postdoc Congress

The Postdoc Congress is being held in the Octagon Building on Mile End Campus, at the north end of the Queen's Building - Building 19a on this map.

Travel

The closest tube services stop at Bethnal Green (District & Hammersmith and City lines), and Mile End (Central, District & Hammersmith and City lines). The 205 and 25 Bus lines also service Mile End campus.

Please note, tube strikes have been announced until noon on 20 May. Please visit TFL Journey Planner to plan alternative routes, should these lines be affected. As an alternative, we suggest the Overground (Windrush line) or Elizabeth Line services to Whitechapel, changing to the 205 or 25 bus - all services which are not due to be impacted by the tube strikes.