In episode #212 of The Grant – the EU funding podcast, I sit down with Marina Kliuchko to zoom in on a group we talk too little about: juniors in research management and support. Marina’s background is anything but light: a degree in biology, a PhD in psychology doing brain science, several postdocs and large collaborative projects across countries and labs. At some point, she realised the classical path – getting your own research team, writing grants to keep yourself and “poor young souls” funded, living with constant uncertainty – simply didn’t feel like her destination, even though on paper she was doing well. That realisation came with self-doubt (“am I not scientific enough?”), identity questions and the uncomfortable feeling of stepping off a ladder everyone around her still seemed to be climbing.

From there the episode follows Marina’s move from doing research to supporting research: why a support role fits her personality better, how she enjoys turning others’ ideas into concrete plans, and why she sees well-designed administrative positions as a sign that an institution is doing something right. We talk about the job market reality for juniors trying to enter research management (“we’re afraid you’ll be bored”, “how do we know you won’t run back to research?”), the loneliness and imposter feelings that can follow, and the slow process of discovering and naming her own skills – organisation, problem-solving, seeing how projects fit together. Along the way, Marina shares what helped: soft-skills and entrepreneurship bootcamps, mentoring, trying out funding strategy work, and eventually working with a career consultant who helped her turn a vague wish (“maybe research support?”) into a confident narrative about what she actually brings to the table.

Time codes:

01:49 Guest introduction and fly in

03:42 Why leave research? The moment of realisation

14:00 From doing research to supporting research

18:59 Being young, experienced, and stuck in between

35:11 The job market reality for junior research managers

48:05 Reflections and advice

57:28 The toughest challenge