Positive examples of online networking in academia
So we are now in the “online age”. All meetings are online, all conferences are online, all new opportunities you have to search online.
Example 1
I am just now preparing a research proposal as I really really really want to continue my academic career. I just love basic science! And to have a good research line, I want to extend my scope to multiple potential antibiotics. I like to study molecules which are at the early stage of development and nobody really knows how they work and how they could work even better.
I found out there is a company just here in my city. I sent them e-mail to their R&D department. No reply. I found the founder of the company on LinkedIn. He is a former postdoc at the university I am currently working. Good, but apart from that I didn’t find any contact details to him. I ordered 1 month free LinkedIn premium trial to be able to send him a message there. I did and he replied stating that “Thank you for reaching out to us. We would be indeed interested...”
Example 2
The online conferences are not for nothing completely. You present your science. A few people listen... and sometimes it happens that in the video chat session, where you are one of only three speakers, you just meet a person who is really interested in your work. And then you look up his recent articles and realize “I have read these before! I know his work and I really like it!”.
The conference was on Tuesday, on Wednesday he proposed two exciting projects, where we can combine our forces and methods, on Friday we agreed on collaboration.
Sure, it was easier to talk to people when we actual could meet at the conferences. But also in the online versions... it works just fine.
