Pedro Henriques Abreu’s Post

My PhD Journey: When Supervisors Become Family This week's Nature editorial asks "What makes PhD students happy?" and my answer is clear: supervisors like Scott Young and Simon Chenery. I was blessed to pursue my PhD at the University of Nottingham and BGS after completing doctoral studies in Egypt (but not awarded). What I found wasn't just academic supervision—I found mentors who transformed my entire approach to research. Scott Young taught me the systematic art of scientific thinking: how to dissect research problems, design rigorous experiments, and craft compelling narratives in English. His confidence in me—ranking me among his top PhD candidates out of 40—became the fuel that drove me forward. More remarkably, he trusted me to co-supervise undergraduate projects and even a PhD student before I completed my own doctorate. That trust was transformative. Simon Chenery showed me that fieldwork could be both scientifically rigorous and deeply human. I'll never forget collecting samples amidst waterfalls and green meadows, his careful attention to my safety crossing roads, and his meticulous teaching of sampling protocols. The week I spent with Simon and his wife Caroline, sharing meals and bridging Egyptian and English cultures, remains one of the most beautiful chapters of my life. The Nature editorial emphasizes that "supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research." Scott and Simon exemplified this philosophy. They didn't just supervise—they invested in me as a whole person. To Scott and Simon: You weren't just my supervisors. You were my academic family. The lessons you taught me about rigorous thinking, ethical research, and genuine mentorship continue to shape how I now supervise my own students in Environmental Soil Sciences. Simon's gift still sits on my desk—a daily reminder that great supervision creates ripples that extend far beyond a single PhD thesis. To every PhD supervisor reading this: your mentorship matters profoundly. Invest in your students, trust their potential, and remember that good supervision doesn't just produce better research—it shapes better researchers, better teachers, and better human beings. #PhDLife #AcademicMentorship #GratefulForMyJourney #SoilScience #UniversityOfNottingham #BGS #PhDSupervision

This year, the EU funding agency has received the highest number of proposals in its four-decade history, with no increase in budget. As Nature Magazine reports, success rates are plunging: https://lnkd.in/eQapb9zb Pushing this trend there is a culture of assessing a researcher’s success by how much money they attract. This metric benefits universities and research institutions, which rely on the overheads that grants bring. But let’s not forget: this is not a metric that drives better, more efficient science. If we wanted to globally maximise scientific output and creative innovation, we would measure what a researcher achieves with every euro/pound/dollar they receive, which would controversially put research income in the denominator, not the numerator of the success metric.

Wise words from Ricardo Grau-Crespo. Moreover, lower success rates also mean that more and more researchers spend a lot of their precious time writing research proposals that are ultimately rejected, leading to less time available for actively engaging in research, student supervision/mentoring etc.

Interdisciplinary research is highly valued for its ability to address complex or “wicked” problems faced by organizations and society. However, despite its potential, such research is not always widely practiced due to the challenges and risks it poses in areas such as publication, promotion, and funding applications. Last week, in a doctoral orientation course for our PhD students, we reviewed an insightful paper titled “Forging Paths to Interdisciplinary Research for Early Career Academics.” The authors offer valuable recommendations for both researchers and institutions on how to actively foster and support interdisciplinary studies. It’s definitely worth a read. https://lnkd.in/dkS2hNEu "we suggest that, if scholars are not conducting interdisciplinary research early in their careers, they are not as likely to do so later, especially after they have become entrenched in a particular field. Furthermore, scholarly productivity declines after tenure, thus reducing the likelihood of interdisciplinary output produced during the post-tenure period." #ResearchFunding #Promotion #AcademicCareer #Publication #InterdisciplinaryResearch #Researchers

African Professors Must Stop Counting Publications — And Start Building Nations "In lecture halls across Africa, a quiet tragedy unfolds every day. Brilliant professors — full of knowledge, passion, and vision — spend their best years chasing publications, not solutions. They write for journals abroad while problems at home multiply. Our universities overflow with research papers, yet our factories remain silent. Our libraries are full, but our laboratories are empty." An insightful article by Isaac Yaw Asiedu (Ph.D) Read here: https://lnkd.in/eZ5kjEYH #Africa #Professors #NationBuilding #ResearchforDevelopment #Development #Education #Publications

The Dutch Research Council (NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) has awarded Professor Julia Wittmayer, of the Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil) and the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, a Vidi grant. With this support, she will investigate how the academic system itself is changing – and must change – to better contribute to addressing urgent societal challenges such as climate change, inequality, and polarisation. Her research project, “Academia in Transition,” explores the ethical, epistemological, and institutional conditions for a university that acts responsibly within society. As Professor Wittmayer states: “With the NWO Vidi grant and the recognition it represents for my research avenue, I feel encouraged to combine a critical perspective with the social entrepreneurship and pragmatism of transition makers – and to bring that spirit into the university itself.” This project is part of Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam broader ambition to link reflection with action, in line with Strategy 2030. https://lnkd.in/ePFUMVF4

During the second day of the 3rd Educational Research Symposium – UDEM 2025, we had the opportunity to engage in a thoughtful conversation with Dr. Gloria Ramirez from Thompson Rivers University (Canada). She shared a fascinating presentation on new ways of approaching research, moving beyond simply exploring or understanding a topic, toward a more active and participatory form of inquiry. Her insights emphasized the importance of decolonizing research, particularly within Indigenous communities, by making research processes more collaborative and impactful for the people involved. These ideas invite us to rethink how we conduct research and how we foster educational processes that truly aim to generate positive impact within communities, a perspective that deeply resonates with the mission and values of Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM). Grateful for this enriching exchange and the opportunity to continue building meaningful international collaborations. #UDEM #Education #Research #HigherEducation #ThompsonRiversUniversity #Canada #Innovation #DecolonizingResearch #InternationalCollaboration

A very interesting article 💡 - Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining — some to single percentage points — as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available. Data gathered by #Nature show that researchers, especially those at the start of their academic journeys, are facing increasingly fierce competition to pursue research careers. - The result is that many researchers are fighting to stay in an increasingly competitive academic system. “You can work as hard as you want, but at the end of the day, it’s down to numbers. It’s down to luck,” says Christina Carlisi, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, who has been applying for grants this year and feeling the strain. “It’s mostly out of your control. And I think that’s sometimes difficult to grapple with in terms of keeping the motivation going.” - The decline in success rates “is absolutely not satisfactory, because it sometimes borders on a lottery”, says Marek Kwiek, an academic-career researcher at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. “Science is becoming extremely competitive...It does feel disheartening” says Carlisi. “There are all of these amazing people putting in amazing applications for things and there just isn’t the funding to support them,” she adds. https://lnkd.in/dh4n2wj3

After years of critiquing university rankings for their systemic biases, I have been cautiously optimistic about the CWTS | Leiden University Ranking, the closest to comparing apples -to-apples without diluting results by pooling all indicators together... It's taking concrete steps toward the justice and inclusivity that #MENA universities, and institutions across the #GlobalSouth desperately need. The game changing developments are: - For the first time, the Leiden Ranking Open Edition includes publications in national and regional scientific venues, not just elite English-language journals. What does this mean? Arabic-language research, regional journals, and locally-focused scholarship finally get recognized. The USP - Universidade de São Paulo saw its publication count jump from approx. 49,000 to approx. 69,000 when non-core publications were included. Imagine the impact for MENA institutions producing vital research for local contexts. - Traditional Edition: 1,594 universities, Open Edition: 2,831 universities More universities from #India, #Indonesia, #Brazil and critically, more representation for regions like #MENA that have been systematically underrepresented in global rankings. - Built on OpenAlex (not proprietary databases), this ranking embraces the #Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. Four major European universities just quit the Times Higher Education ranking specifically because of its opacity, and endorsed Leiden's open approach instead. Why This Matters for MENA? For too long, university rankings have privileged: English over Arabic, "International" (read: Western) journals over regional ones and research impact measured by citation cartels, not societal contribution. The Leiden Open Edition doesn't solve everything, there are still metadata challenges, and rankings remain imperfect tools, but it's a meaningful step toward epistemic justice in how we measure academic excellence. For those of us working in Qatar, the Gulf, and across MENA: this is an opportunity to demonstrate our universities' full research footprint, not just the one visible through a Western lens. The revolution in research evaluation won't be ranked, but it might just be measured more fairly. Thank you Nees Jan van Eck Rodrigo Costas Comesaña Mark Neijssel Ed Noyons Martijn Visser Ludo Waltman for the effort!

LSE and Georgetown University have announced the first recipients of the LSE–Georgetown University Research Seed Fund. Following a competitive review process, five projects have been selected for funding, each receiving up to £20,000 ($25,800). 🗣️ Welcoming the announcement, LSE's Professor Susana Mourato said "These successful projects will give us fascinating insights into vital areas of research and hopefully deliver lasting impacts. "Cooperation and collaboration, particularly on an international scale, are critical for us to face up to the numerous challenges in the world today.”