Tiffany Li

Earlier this year, the Charles Perkins Centre and Brain and Mind Centre EMCR committees collaborated to host a workshop on Reducing Stress and Preventing Burnout as an EMCR. This workshop was facilitated by Linda Murray from the Athena Leadership Academy and supported by the University of Sydney 2025 Researcher Development Unit EMCR Training Grant Scheme.

Burnout and stress are commonly experienced by early-career researchers, and this has been highlighted in the Research Australia 2022 report on Measures to Support Early & Mid-Career Researchers. Our pre-workshop survey indicated that up to 90% of our cohort have reported experiencing burnout in the past year, despite the majority also believing that their current work routines are sustainable. This mismatch highlighted the urgent need for stress management support for our EMCR community.

The workshop was exceptionally well received by participants. Majority of participants indicated that the workshop had exceeded their expectations. A number of them stated that this workshop had given them tips on how to deal with stress including “Taking small steps to alleviate stress frequently” and “Actionable steps I can do right now to improve my management of stress, that I believe I will stick to”.

Attendees also appreciated that this workshop was able to provide actionable and practical takeaways, stating “Very helpful and realistic tips and ways to interpret and act upon work and external stressors to manage stress and reduce burnout” and “Clear tips and actions I can implement today”.

The number of participants meant that there was the opportunity to have small group discussions, as well as opportunity to receive 1:1 feedback from the workshop facilitator. Participants indicated that this was a valuable component of the workshop. Overall, this workshop was an overwhelming success and collaboration between the CPC and BMC EMCRs.