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The many interests of the PFGS

Postgraduates involved in research in the Life Sciences, Ethics and Society do not have an obvious disciplinary home. They are often spread between departments within their own university, and have found it difficult to meet others with similar interests. The PFGS is a national forum for students, founded to provide a supportive network and environment. See what our current members and alumni are doing, then come and join us. All you have to do is email your name, Uni, Dept and field of research at pfgscomm [at] gmail.com to join the PFGS — membership is free, and so are our activities. We’ll email a few times a year about upcoming events. You can also join our Facebook group here and receive updates in your newsfeed.

 

The PFGS has been supported by the ESRC’s Genomics Forum, and has been instrumental in bringing together postgraduate researchers for regional meetings. Out of these meetings, a large online community has formed, which gives postgraduates the opportunity to keep in touch with one another and stay abreast of current issues. The current aims of the PFGS are to

  • promote multi-disciplinary engagement with social, legal and ethical research on the biosciences;
  • to strengthen the pan-European postgraduate and postdoctoral community researching the biosciences and society, and provide a durable network for transnational and inter-disciplinary collaboration; and
  • to explore and develop the synergistic benefits of multi- and inter-disciplinary cooperation
You can find out more about the past events and history of the PFGS on our History page.

This blog has evolved from the changing needs of this community of researchers. In an increasingly fast-paced and online research environment, students are more and more accustomed to participating in online communities and fora. Previous methods of keeping in touch with the network, such as printed newsletters, mass emails, pdf newsheets have been brought together in this blog format. We hope that it will be more interactive and more of a conversation. Join in!