COLife Postdoc Day 2022 took place on November 18 at the IGC and brought together post-doctoral researchers from six life sciences research institutes in the Lisbon and Oeiras region, which form the COLife alliance of which NMS belongs.
The COLife post-doctoral researchers retreat was a full day with a busy scientific and social agenda. The researchers had the opportunity to strengthen ties and interact with researchers from different scientific areas.
During the afternoon, there were parallel sessions dedicated to soft kills sessions with various guest speakers. We highlight the workshop "Conflict Management and Effective Communication in the Lab", with experienced trainers from the Chaperone network, and the roundtable "Communicating science efficiently", with science communicators from the Podcast com Razão, Native Scientist, Fala-me Neuro, and ITQB NOVA and NMS communication offices, which was very participated.
The members of the NMS Postdoc Committee emphasize that organizing this retreat, which in addition to the excellent scientific program included team building activities, was a "very rewarding experience" and that "events like this are very important to know what postdoctoral researchers from other institutions are studying and establishing future collaborations."
This day also marked the farewell of the NMS 2021/2022 Postdoctoral Committee team and this was the last event they organized on behalf of the NMS postdoctoral researchers. Regarding this work, the team emphasizes that during the time they represented the NMS postdoctoral community they "always tried to act as a bridge between the postdocs of our Institution and NMS Direction and express the main concerns of our community and solve common issues". They highlight the social and scientific activities they have organized at as PostDoc Committee, such as the NMS Postdoc Retreat 2022 and the COLife Postdoc Day 2022, which they see as unique days that encourage interaction between researchers from different areas who are at the same stage of their careers, and hope these meetings will bear fruit and translate into future collaborations. In addition, they highlight the participation as ambassadors of NMS Research in different scientific dissemination activities such as the European Researchers' Night and the NMS Open Day. They close the year at service of their peers and pass the testimony saying "We believe that together we are stronger, thus the NMS postdoc committe has a crutial role in representing a group of researchers that have a strong contribution in our institution".