The IGDORE Project: Reinventing Academia with an Open (Science) Mind

I’m giving a public virtual talk about IGDORE at University of Exeter on Thursday February 4th, 13:00 CET (12:00 GMT).

The talk will be on Zoom. To get access to the meeting id, you need to register here:

https://t.co/6pqycHBFVv

A few hours before the talk begins, the meeting id will be sent to the email you have registered with. Thus, it’s good to register even if you’re not sure you’ll be able to make it.

The talk will be followed by a live Q&A. Questions can be sent ahead of the talk through the registration form.

The seminar will be recorded and possible to watch afterwards on YouTube.

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Many congratulations and thanks to @rebecca for her wonderful presentation just now. It was highly illuminating to learn of her career and journey as an academic and how it led to her founding of IGDORE and her thoughts on academia and research etc. I guess we all owe it to her for giving us a voice here in IGDORE. We look forward to rewatching the recorded video and chatting more about these perennially relevant issues!

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Thank you for the kind words, @keithtse! :blush:

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i owe a lot to @rebecca and IGDORE… let’s keep up the spirit! :slight_smile:

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Thank you @rebecca . Did you get my email which I sent to you last week? It would be great to chat more about it. Look forward to your next event in any case!

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Video recording of @rebecca ’s presentation now out!

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That presentation was indeed fantastic! Thank you, @rebecca :slight_smile:

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Thanks @rebecca for this super insightful talk and for all the questions you answered! That was really helpful for me, especially since I have been struggling with the academic system because I care about open and replicable science.

One thing you said in the Q&A was that you think that only “very independent” people, who do not rely on working with other people are suitable for IGDORE. I was wondering if I understood you correctly and if I did, I would like to say that I can imagine IGDORE being the right place also for people who are dependent on working with others. I felt like I was exactly the person you described (I do in fact eat vegan at home but am less strict when I am invited to other people’s homes :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: and I needed a lot of supervision during my PhD). At the same time I have very good reasons to affiliate with IGDORE as someone who wants to do things differently and is fed up with the system as it is. Couldn’t IGDORE also be seen as the network needed to build new types of collaborations and teams to support also those who are not superindependent (in the sense that they need to feel part of a team)?

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Hi Heidi, welcome to the forum :wave:

I don’t want to answer for Rebecca, but I can speak from my own experience - I considered myself quite independent when working in academia and also found remote work as part of an academic team satisfying, but after starting my own research project I’ve really noticed the lack of any regular collegiality related to my research. The fact that academic independence and familiarity with remote work weren’t great predictors of my suitability for independent research actually surprised me a bit and I’m thinking about ways to build a more interactions into my work. Otherwise, I’ve noticed now enjoy opportunities to participate in administrative (I’m on IGDOREs board) and collaborative team projects with others more than I used to.

Generally, I think that people with various levels of independence, not just the ‘very independent’, could do independent research (at IGDORE or elsewhere), but some creativity may be required to provide the exchanges that less dependent people need. I agree that experimenting with new collaborative and team structures could also be quite helpful and I’d be happy to see the IGDORE network used to develop these.

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Thank you warmly for these kind words, @heidi!

Ah, I see. It was the same for me. I wrote this 2018 blog post on the topic too, might be relevant to you: ‘New academia’ — a safe harbour for researchers who love science | by IGDORE | Medium

Yeah afterwards I thought about that particular answer and felt that it wasn’t a good one. I think the reason I replied that way is that I generally try to be very careful not giving the impression of me trying to recruit people to IGDORE. There have been a few exceptions in the beginning when the project was newly launched but other than that I try not to suggest or encourage people to join IGDORE. A lecturer I had once in basic psychotherapy told us something I took to heart: “an advice is a costly gift”. Meaning that it’s the recipient of the advice, not the advisor, who has to live with consequences if the advice is followed. The consequences may turn out positive but it may just as well turn out the opposite. I consider IGDORE to be a high-risk project, financially but also reputation-wise. Early affiliates could with time gain academic credibility from having made the bold choice to join early, but that depends on how things turn out for IGDORE. The safest choice would be to wait until IGDORE has gained more institutional credibility. Thus, as the founder of IGDORE, I prefer to take a neutral or even pessimistic approach toward whether people should join or not: I don’t want to give the impression of me advising people to join.

That said, I do see your point and I agree that my answer in the Q&A could have been more nuanced.

Hah :grin: and I’m happy to hear I was wrong about this!

I think IGDORE has the potential of becoming such a network, but we would need more volunteers or funding (to employ people) to develop it. Ronin Institute has a bit more of this, they have existed longer and nowadays they have @arika.virapongse employed to coordinate and encourage the volunteers. IGDORE will soon launch an open seminar series, and this can hopefully create more networking opportunities.

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Wow thank you @Gavin and @rebecca for your super thoughtful replies. I am very much looking forward to networking with you :wink:

@rebecca I understand much better now why you gave this answer and I feel really good about joining IGDORE.

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