Inaugural winner of Capstone Editing grant for women announced
Dr Megan Sutherland, winner of the Capstone Editing Early Career Academic Research
Grant for Women.
Firmly believing in providing support for the next generation of female academics, Capstone Editing have announced Monash University’s Dr Megan Sutherland as the winner of their Early Career Academic Research Grant for Women.
Established to provide financial support for female early career academics, in recognition of the additional barriers women face in achieving academic success and advancing their careers, the grant assists with costs associated with a research project leading to a publication.
Dr Sutherland, a Research Fellow at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), will use her award to travel and work with collaborators at the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, to continue her research into the impact of preterm birth on renal function in Indigenous Australian infants. Dr Sutherland is a member of Professor Jane Black’s laboratory, in the Development and Stem Cells Program of the Monash BDI.
Preterm babies are born at a time when their kidneys are still developing, and Dr Sutherland’s research is focused on determining what impact this has on the structure and function of the immature kidneys. Her important findings have been published in a number of journal articles, including the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and the American Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology.
In Australia, a high proportion (14%) of Indigenous infants are born preterm each year, and are therefore at risk of impaired kidney development and function after birth. These impairments not only influence the ability of the preterm infant to grow and thrive, but can also increase their risk of developing kidney disease in later life. This is of particular concern in the Australian Indigenous community, in which rates of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are already exceedingly high. With the support of Capstone Editing, Dr Sutherland aims to fully assess the impact of preterm birth on renal function in Australian Indigenous infants during the first month of life, and identify any risk factors for the later development of CKD.
Dr Sutherland is a highly talented early career researcher, and a current recipient of an NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship. She completed her PhD at Monash University in 2012, spent the last four years working in postdoctoral positions overseas at the University of Montreal, Canada, and the University of Cambridge, UK, and has recently returned to Australia to continue her research. This opportunity from Capstone Editing will not only help to increase Dr Sutherland’s publication record, but will also assist her in obtaining future independent research funding.
About the Capstone Editing Early Career Academic Research Grant for Women
Despite their predominant numbers at the undergraduate and graduate levels, women generally remain under-represented in academia. This is known as the ‘pipeline effect’, in which women pursue academic advancement post-PhD at a lower rate than men, with many declining to take up academic positions. This effect, although under-studied, appears to be the result of the highly competitive nature of academia, which adversely affects women in both their decision to embark on an academic career and their development within that career.
Academic workloads at all levels are often excessive, with unrealistic expectations regarding research output and the unpaid overtime that is necessary to work competitively. Ninety per cent of full-time academics work over 40 hours a week, including 51 per cent who work over 50 hours a week (and this can mean anywhere up to 80 hours a week). Given the continued social expectations and structural factors that result in women often assuming the bulk of the responsibility of meeting the demands of parenthood and other caring roles, these workloads are quite simply impossible for many female academics to sustain. Despite the progress that many academic institutions have made regarding caring’s effect on academic work, it is undeniable that overall there is a systemic failure to recognise all the ways that caring, particularly motherhood, can profoundly alter a female academic’s career.