Topic: Once a researcher, always a researcher. Or not? Will academia be my kind of life? Or not? Many researchers struggle with planning their career ahead since so much depends on chance. However, a career is never ‘just’ a personal story – it is also a story that is linked to labour market opportunities. The more information you have on the environment you work in, the more you will be able to recognize the chances that are there and to shape your own opportunities. Because a person’s future is never handed over on a silver plate.

 

 

A graduate of Ghent University (Belgium, 1995) Karen Vandevelde moved to Ireland to obtain an MA Degree (1996) and a PhD Degree in Arts (2001). She taught literature and drama, obtained a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and another one which brought her back to Ghent University. After a short but exciting teaching experience at the Arteveldehogeschool in Ghent, Karen Vandevelde became involved in research policy and management as an advisor in Ghent University's Department of Research Affairs in 2006. She was involved in setting up the Doctoral Schools at the university, in Quality Assurance in Research and in various other exciting projects at Ghent University. One such project is the policy-relevant research centre ECOOM (Centre for R&D Monitoring), funded by the Flemish Government and devoted to mapping Ph.D. success rates, doctoral careers and researchers’ mobility. Karen co-authored a number of studies on Ph.D. trajectories, careers of researchers and researchers’ mobility. She has taken part in a number of expert groups and stakeholders’ meetings of the European Commission, the OECD and the Flemish Government (research & innovation) preparing policy recommendations and developing monitoring tools related to researchers’ careers.

 

Personal page of Karen Vandevelde