On behalf of the Association of Applied Biologists' Early Career Professionals (ECPro) committee - we're proud to present 'Early Career Essentials for Applied Biologists': a two day meeting bringing together our entire Early-Career community, from all across academia, industry, policy and farming.
With a jam-packed programme full of career-accelerating workshops, science and unique opportunities for cross-disciplinary networking. This event will help all ECPs build new skills and networks beyond their field.
Schedule Details
This two-day meeting is a mix of oral and poster presentations and workshop sessions.
Day 1: October 20th 2026
Meeting begins at 10am:
Keynote talk: Professor Malcolm Bennett (University of Nottingham)
Delegate short talks
- Lunch
Workshop- Shaping science policy: Understanding and Impacting the system
Speaker: Kieran Woof, (Senior Science Policy Officer (Plants and Environmental Sciences) at the Royal Society of Biology)
- Break
Workshop: Creating inclusive teams: collaboration, leadership, and communication
Speakers: Prof. Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso (University of Leeds, Founder of Black in Plant Sciences) and Prof. Sean May (University of Nottingham)
Poster Session
Networking evening at local venue
Day 2: October 21st 2026
Keynote talk: Dr Dana MacGregor (Rothamsted Research)
Delegate short talks
- Break
Careers Panel: Moving from fundamental research to application - Changing your focus within science
Confirmed participants: Nick Bird (KWS), Geraint Parry (AAB), Tom Locatelli (Forest Research), Dana MacGregor (Rothamsted), Malcolm Bennett (Nottingham) & more TBC!
- Lunch
Communicating your Science: public science communication and principles underpinning government behaviour change work
Speaker: Adrian Searle (Head of Communications, Forest Research)
(L-R) Malcolm Bennett, Dana MacGregor, Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso
Sean May, Kieran Woof, Adrian Searle
Nick Bird, Tom Locatelli, Geraint Parry
The conference is organised by the AAB Early Career Professional Specialist Group.