News
Gabriel Silberman - My reflections as a former CRAC Trustee
09/07/2025
Gabriel Silberman, former Trustee of the Board of The Careers Research and Advisory Centre from 2019 - 2025 shares his experiences working with CRAC.
Describe your experience leading up to joining CRAC as a Trustee.
I arrived in Barcelona, Spain, towards the end of 2017, to begin the leadership of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, BIST, a multidisciplinary scientific alliance of seven Catalan research centres pursuing cutting edge research in genomics, bioengineering, biomedicine, chemistry, nanotechnology, photonics, and high-energy physics. My arrival coincided with high uncertainty due to the negotiations to effect Britain's exit from the European Union. These circumstances created a climate of concern among European research institutions, particularly regarding the continued availability of research funding from provincial, national, and European sources.
As a young organisation, BIST’s priorities included the creation of multi-disciplinary, multi-centre research programmes, fostering the creation of a community among research personnel, graduate students, and support staff across all its member institutions. A strong focus was put on enhancing the support for professional development through courses and hands-on activities covering all major transition points in a research career, joining a graduate research programme, pursuing a PhD thesis, a postdoc position, a tenure-track appointment and promotions therein.
Why did you want to undertake the Trustee role at CRAC?
BIST was already engaged in the Vitae programme, run by The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC). Vitae had been working with several Spanish entities and had experience working with the local community. Soon after my arrival I had the opportunity to participate in one of the Vitae-provided courses, for beginning PhD candidates, tailored to BIST specific needs. I compared the tools they were given to my own experience when pursuing my PhD and I saw the progress made in the training of doctoral candidates. I also learned about the depth of expertise, tools and offerings which CRAC possessed in all aspects of researcher development, motivating me to put forward my name when the call went out for new Trustees for the charity.
How did CRAC’s knowledge and resources help during the pandemic?
The resources from CRAC proved extremely useful to provide support for researchers during the pandemic, as research institutions shut down operations and disrupted the normal course of studies. We witnessed how health concerns, both personal and for family, friends, and colleagues, piled on top of the usual stress present in high achieving cultures, such as those present in performance-oriented research organisations. Furthermore, the BIST community had an international component of over 40%, meaning many of its members were away from their family core, during a period when travel was extremely restricted. A relentless focus on support for mental health was essential to sustain the internal community during this difficult period, made easier by having access to knowledge and materials provided by CRAC.
My time as a Trustee at CRAC enabled me to influence support for researchers, particularly in science and to share CRAC’s expertise with BIST and other research institutions.
