This week brought a professional milestone of sorts: it’s the first time that I’ve been called up and asked to share my expertise to feed into policy. I’ve been approached once before by a company who were interested in some research I’d done, which was also nice, but this was the first time for “We’re revising x, and we’re reaching out to people who have published on the topic to have conversations…”
It felt good. It helped me feel that what I do can make a difference; that it’s worthwhile, on the research side as well as the teaching. Maybe it will lead to future things – there is talk of a possible working group – but if it doesn’t, that’s OK too. It’s given a positive glow to the last couple of days.