The Doc Report - February 2018

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs will be conducting its inaugural climate survey in March. This survey will assess your experiences as a CU Boulder postdoc in terms of campus community, culture and safety as well as career development, job satisfaction and programming interests. The results of this survey will be used to improve services and inform advocacy efforts for CU Boulder postdocs.

Participation in this survey will enter you in a drawing to win one of two $50 visa gift cards.

This survey will be sent to all individuals classified as Postdoctoral Associates and Postdoctoral Fellows on campus. However, we are aware that some postdocs may not have been converted to the new Postdoctoral Associate job title, and remain classified as Research Associates. We will seek the confidential participation of all CU Boulder postdocs regardless of job title; if you are a postdoc with the Research Associate job title or are unsure of your job title, please use the below link to sign up to participate in the survey, confidentially.

Sign Up

As the new year begins, university personnel are reminded to complete a Disclosure of External Professional Activities (DEPA) in order to meet requirements for conflicts of interest disclosure. A 2018 DEPA is required to be on file for all faculty and other designated groups, regardless of whether or not a conflict exists. (This should not to be confused with FRPA reporting.) DEPA reporting takes less than 5 minutes to complete for over 95% of disclosers.

You can complete Conflict of Interest reporting by logging into myCUinfo.* Faculty and Staff will see a "Faculty Reporting & DEPA" tile, from which you select "Details." Students willl have a "DEPA" link on the right-hand side of the portal. Then click "Login to DEPA."

Failure to report can result in:

• A delay in the establishment, renewal and continuation of speedtypes.
• Delayed processing of grant/contract proposals and awards.
• Delays in procurement transactions.
• Delayed approval from compliance review committees such as IRB, IACUC, etc.

For assistance:

• If you have technical difficulties, please email help@colorado.edu or call: 303-735-4357 (5-HELP).
• If you have questions about the DEPA form, please email the Compliance Director, Conflicts of Interest and Commitment at pamela.rosse@colorado.edu or coi@colorado.edu or 303-492-3024.
• The CU Boulder Conflicts of Interest website has additional details and helpful links.
• To prepare for the DEPA questions you may want to view the Sample Form available via the FAQs once you have accessed the DEPA reporting page.

Thank you for your time and effort.

By Leah Colvin | Inside Higher Ed Carpe Careers

I was always going to become a faculty member in molecular biology at a research-intensive institution. Everything changed when I got pregnant two years into my postdoctoral training. While my work and CV-building efforts remained strong over the months when I endured morning sickness, recovered from delivery, battled postpartum depression and bonded with my infant son, something inside me changed.

During this time, I watched my colleagues travel dozens of times for faculty interviews. I watched early-career professors forced to bring their young children to work with them when day care was not available. I watched nontenured and tenured professors alike change institutions to advance their careers or find a soft landing after not getting promoted.

I suddenly found myself at a point where all of my professional preparation was for a job that no longer aligned with what I valued.

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What did one computational biologist say to the other? It sounds like the start of a bad joke. But for Aidan Budd, it gets to the crux of his work as a community builder.

When he was a scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Budd’s main responsibilities were research and teaching. But he was also responsible for fostering community among his colleagues. He organized regular meetups where the denizens of his campus in Heidelberg, Germany, could chat informally about whatever was on their minds.

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A total of 57 postdoctoral scholars from Colorado research institutions assembled at the Colorado State Capitol on January 19 to share their research with Colorado state legislators as part of Colorado Science Day organized by Project Bridge Colorado. In support of the event, Governor John Hickenlooper signed an official proclamation naming January 19, 2018, as “Early Career Scientist Day.”

CU Boulder was well-represented among the 11 Colorado research institutions at the event, including CU Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Denver, CSU, NREL, NCAR, NOAA and NIST. The Postdoctoral Association of Colorado and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs promoted the event to CU Boulder postdoctoral scholars.

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