Kings College London, 2 December 2019

By Hannah West

On a chilly winter’s evening we were delighted to have such a great turn out in the impressive Council Room at Kings College, Strand Campus for the DRN Relaunch and Networking Evening. Opening the evening, Dr Tracey German, Head of the Defence Studies Department welcomed everyone to share mince pies and drinks to mark the new partnership between DSD and the DRN and also launch our new website. Dr Alex Gould, Dr Sophy Gardner and Dr Dan Leightley shared their insights about the importance of collaboration and networking from helping during the potential isolation of PhD study to the benefits of new inter-disciplinary perspectives.

Whilst an informal occasion, we helped nudge along the mingling by introducing a few networking activities from ‘Research on a Postcard’ and a digital word cloud where people could share an insight into their discipline and research. As ever, we were struck by the breadth of research from space to counterinsurgency, from veteran's mental health to body armour, from computer science to air power and from Russia and China to Zimbabwe. We encouraged people to find others researching similar subjects and geographical areas through some disciplinary speed dating, forming clusters based on what we had found out. The evening culminated with Quickfire talking points, where anyone present had the opportunity to share something for up to a minute whether it be an insight into their research or something they wanted to plug.

It was great to meet so many of you face to face and learn more about your research, we hope to see you getting involved in our Twitter Hour starting in January 2020.